Selection process for EU privacy chief triggers complaints to ombudsman

The EU Ombudsman has received two complaints about the ongoing process for selecting a new European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the Ombudsman's office has confirmed to Euronews. 

The office said that it received a complaint before the summer concerning the process to select a new head of the privacy watchdog, which is responsible for overseeing whether the EU institutions comply with data protection rules. 

The Ombudsman's office said it hasn't yet opened an inquiry on the issue since the European Commission has not been given time to respond to the issues raised. In the meantime the office said it had received a second complaint, which it's still in the process of analysing to consider whether to open an inquiry.

The mandate of the current EDPS, Poland’s Wojciech Wiewiórowski expired December last year, but still no decision has been taken on who should replace him.

The procedure to find a new head of the authority is in deadlock after the European Parliament and EU member states backed different candidates for the role after a short list selected by the Commission appeared in hearings in January this year.

Representatives of the Parliament and member states have held various meetings since then to resolve the issue but have failed so far to come to an agreement.

Independence

The European Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, LIBE, voted to appoint long-time Commission official Bruno Gencarelli, from Italy, while the member states are backing Wiewiórowski to stay on for another mandate.

Gencarelli’s candidature raised questions from think tank the Centre for AI & Digital Humanism and a group of privacy academics in March. He spent 12 years working in managerial roles on data protection at the Commission, and was formerly a head of the executive's International Affairs and Data Flows Unit.

They wrote to the Parliament and Commission presidents as well as the Council Presidency, saying that appointing him would be “a violation of the constitutionally protected complete independence of EDPS and of the principle of good administration,” adding that the next privacy chief should be a “candidate whose independence is beyond doubt”.

None of the institutions have replied to the letter, according to a source familiar with the issue. 

The EDPS job has never been held by a former Commission official: Wiewiórowski, as well as his predecessors Peter Hustinx (2004-2009 and 2009-2014) and Giovanni Buttarelli (2014 -2019) all previously worked at national supervisory authorities. 

In the absence of a new head of the watchdog, Wiewiórowski is continuing his work. 

The Commission previously told Euronews that it cannot comment on the current state of the procedure, adding that there is no deadline in the process, and that the current EDPS “stays in place until the new one is appointed”.

Established in 2004, the EDPS is unable to fine tech giants for breaches of EU privacy rules — that's a competence of the national data protection authorities — it publishes opinions on legislative proposals and weighs in on upcoming digital legislation.