As we approach the end of the year, I think that if I had to put a tag on 2014, I would say it was a year of exceptions—and a predictable and surprising year at the same time. 

Exceptions because I found that some of the things that are usually routinely true in our professional life here in the old continent sort of changed this year. Usually, for example, summertime and year-end tend to be very quiet times. Not so much so in 2014: This December has been particularly prolific, with the formal appointment of the new EDPS, one last EU Council of Ministers meeting on the data protection package, which resulted in yet another partial agreement, yet another debate on the one-stop-shop mechanism that attracted a mixed bag of comments from observers. Not to mention the myriad pieces of privacy news that continue to clutter our inboxes and LinkedIn updates.

I also do think that 2014 was both a predictable and surprising year. Some of the developments we witnessed were indeed highly foreseeable: I think about, for example, the fact that the Council of Ministers of the EU didn’t manage to find an agreement on the data protection package, despite some evident steps ahead in the negotiations. Some exceptionally optimistic commentators had predicted that a council draft—if not a fully finalised Regulation and Directive—might have seen the light of day by the end of 2014. I don’t think many were shocked by the fact that it didn’t happen.

Then again, if I think about some twists in the negotiations, the changes brought in by the European elections, a few of the comments that followed the appointment of the new European Commission and some of the appointments themselves, I definitely think there have been a few surprises there. Besides, the year is not quite over yet.