With data protection issues in the news at every level and a reform package high on the EU agenda, it seems strange that the appointment of a new EDPS is not being treated as a matter of urgency. Peter Hustinx, the current EDPS, whose term of office expires on 16 January, has written letters to EU Commission Vice President Maros Sefcovic, the Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs and the Greek Presidency of the Council expressing his ‘serious concerns’ about the failure to move towards the appointment of a successor.
The near-certainty is that there will be a lengthy period before a new EDPS is appointed. Since the term of office of the Assistant EDPS also expires on 16 January, there really will be no supervision in this area for a crucial period, despite that fact that the office of EDPS has a fundamentally important status for the EU under the Charter and the Treaty. It is tempting to think that the EU Commission may be quite pleased to be free of supervision for a while, especially as the EDPS supervision has often involved critical comment on the Commission’s own proposals in the recent past. But there may, as (almost) ever, be more in the cock-up theory than the conspiracy theory.
In his letter, set out in full below, Peter Hustinx mentions that ‘The EU is presently in a critical period for the fundamental rights of privacy and data protection, and a strong mandate is required to provide the authority to ensure that these fundamental rights are fully taken into account at EU level’ and deplores what he describes, with considerable understatement, as a ‘period of uncertainty’.
Laurence Eastham writes:
The likelihood of anyone of adequate status being immediately available is very slight (though, having seen the salary, I could start on 20 January). Surely the EU can find a way to appoint an interim EDPS. Although the obvious lack of independence of any interim appointment makes that undesirable, it seems like the least-bad option.
Text of letter
I am writing to express my serious concerns about the procedure for the selection and appointment of a new European Data Protection Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor. As set out in Article 42 (1) of Regulation (EC) No 45/2001, both are appointed by common accord of the European Parliament and the Council for a term of five years, on the basis of a list drawn up by the Commission following a public call for candidates.
As you know, the mandates of the present team of Supervisors will expire on 16 January 2014. At this stage, it is highly unlikely that the appointment of a new Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor will take place either before or shortly after this date. This opens the perspective of a period of uncertainty as to when the new team of Supervisors will be appointed.
This uncertainty and the possibly long delays that may be involved, as well as their different consequences, are likely to harm the effectiveness and the authority of the EDPS over the coming months. The EU is presently in a critical period for the fundamental rights of privacy and data protection, and a strong mandate is required to provide the authority to ensure that these fundamental rights are fully taken into account at EU level. In this respect, I would recall that the operation of a fully effective independent control authority is an essential feature of that right, as set out in Article 8 of the Charter and Article 16 of the Treaty.
I would therefore urge you to take all the steps necessary to ensure that a new Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor will be appointed as soon as possible.
