Filenews 1 December 2022 - by Myrto Zoumidou
Only six European countries, Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal and Romania, have adopted specific legislation recognizing the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors, according to a survey conducted by the Research Section of the House of Representatives, at the request of AKEL MP Marina Nicolaou. The relevant research concerns the legal guarantee of the right to be forgotten for cancer patients, as well as the right of patients with a rare disease to insurance and lending in the Member States of the European Union.
It is noted that as part of the survey, a questionnaire was sent to the European Centre for Parliamentary Research and Documentation, which included questions concerning the legislative regulations protecting the right to be forgotten. Additional questions were also raised about the legislative regulation of the protection of the right to insurance and lending for people suffering from a rare disease.
What are included in the provisions of the legislation in the countries where the "Right to Be Forgotten" is applied?
According to the relevant legislation of Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Portugal, the period beyond which medical information on the previous cancer disease cannot be collected by insurance organisations may not exceed ten years after the end of treatment. In Romania this duration is set at seven years, while in France, with a recent amendment of the legislation, the duration of ten years has been reduced to five years.
It is worth noting that the legislations also include a number of exceptions for cancers with an excellent prognosis as to the time of exercise of the right to be forgotten. For example, in the Netherlands the period beyond which it is not possible to collect medical information on thyroid cancer cannot exceed three or six years after the end of treatment, depending on the stage of the disease.
As far as the right to insurance and loans for persons suffering from rare diseases is concerned, the main diseases mentioned in the legislations of the countries that apply this right are viral hepatitis C and HIV. For these diseases, the legislation provides that insurance companies:
1. either they cannot charge additional premiums or reject the contract due to the chronic disease
2. they can charge an extra premium due to the chronic disease.
In Cyprus
As far as Cyprus is concerned, most insurance companies refuse to provide life insurance policies to cancer survivors or patients with rare diseases, resulting in discrimination due to their medical history. The result of this discrimination is the obstruction of access to financial services, since insurance is set as a basic condition for securing loans.
EU: Implementation of the "Right to Be Forgotten" by 2025
It is recalled that last February, the European Parliament adopted a resolution on strengthening Europe against Cancer, calling on Member States to implement the Right to Be Forgotten by 2025 and calling for it to be introduced into European Union legislation to include discrimination and improve access to financial services for cancer survivors.
In addition, it calls for all Member States to guarantee the right to be forgotten by 2025 at the latest, for all European patients ten years after the end of their treatment and five years after the end of treatment for patients diagnosed with cancer before the age of 18.
