On 10 February, the Spanish Socialist Parliamentary Group
tabled a non-law proposal on the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors.
The explanatory statement of the non-law proposal refers to both the Beating
Cancer Plan and the Consumer Credit Directive. It is argued
that considering that the Spanish National Health System cancer
strategy was updated following the Beating Cancer Plan (BCP), an account
must be taken when it comes to the mention from the BCP of the
inclusion of improvement of quality of life of survivors.
To this day, Spain does not have a legislation on the
Right to be Forgotten for cancer survivors but when it comes to persons with
HIV/AIDS, there is a law that forbids discrimination in recruitment and
”imposition of more onerous conditions”. This non-law proposal aims
extend the principles of this law to other pathologies such
as cancer.
As regard next steps, group coordinators still
need to agree on when to include this item in the Plenary’s
agenda – they can also decide not to do it. If approved, the text
will be debated directly in the Plenary, which showcases the urgency of the
file, given that normally these types of initiatives are tabled to
the responsible Committee first.