EU agrees draft text of pan-European data privacy rules

New rules will strengthen European citizens' privacy protections, while a controversial proposal to raise 'age of digital consent' to 16 was devolved to member states

Europe has taken a big step towards stronger, pan-European data privacy laws, after agreeing the text of new reforms.

The agreement, four years in the making, comes after six months of "trilogue" negotiations between the European Commission, the European parliament and the Council of the European Union, in the last legislative session of the year.