Progress in Spain towards implementing the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors – Françoise Meunier

I am delighted to see that great progress is being made in Spain towards implementing the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s Prime Minister, committed during a meeting with more than 2,500 representatives of patient associations on May 13th, to ban discrimination against cancer survivors when applying for loans or insurance. It is thus expected that, from June, a cancer history will no longer be a reason to be denied a loan or insurance. This provision should apply to former cancer patients 5 years after the end of treatment and without any signs of relapse.

The Prime Minister’s declaration also comes as a response to the Spanish Congress which, in late March, approved a non-law proposal to extend the current provisions of HIV patients to the right to be forgotten for Spanish cancer survivors and demanded that the government act further. The European Union also requests that legislation enshrining the right to be forgotten for cancer survivors be implemented by all Member States by 2025.

Sanchez’s government will now have to bring the matter to Congress and the Senate and, if approved, amend the General Law for the Defense of Consumers and Users and the Insurance Contract Law.

We will keep monitoring the situation, but this is a step in the right direction towards granting cancer survivors the right to access financial services and to live as normal lives as possible.

Source: Françoise Meunier/LinkedIn