Parliamentary question - E-001252/2025(ASW)Parliamentary question
E-001252/2025(ASW)
European Parliament

Answer given by Ms Albuquerque on behalf of the European Commission

28.5.2025

Written question

The right to be forgotten is important, in particular for cancer survivors. Facilitating access to financial services for cancer survivors is one of the aims of Europe’s Beating Cancer Plan, launched on 3 February 2021[1], on World Cancer Day .

One of the actions that the Commission presented in this Cancer Plan is for relevant stakeholders — cancer and consumer organisations, the medical community and the financial sector — to engage in dialogue and develop a Code of Conduct that ensures cancer patients’ fair access to financial services. The Commission organised an event in May 2024 taking stock of the progress of this dialogue[2].

In the context of the discussions on a voluntary Code of Conduct, it is up to those stakeholders to continue the dialogue and find compromises.

The Commission continues to encourage them to do so as a means to advance the ‘right to be forgotten’ across the EU.

A ‘code’ agreed by all relevant stakeholders would likely win swift traction in all Member States, while leaving freedom to adapt to national specificities.

Some stakeholders call for EU legislation on the right to be forgotten. The Consumer Credit Directive[3] implemented the right to be forgotten in EU consumer credit legislation for the first time.

That directive must be transposed by 20 November 2025; the Member States will apply it from 20 November 2026. It will be important to draw lessons from this legislation before proposing further EU initiatives in other areas aside consumer credit agreements.

Last updated: 2 June 2025
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