Expert database - EFSA

The Notification concerns EFSA’s Expert Database. This database contains professional data of external scientific experts who may be called upon to carry out advisory work for EFSA (and for national authorities in Member States with a similar mandate to EFSA). The Notification also covers EFSA's procedure to select external scientific experts from the database for its specific scientific projects. 

The EDPS, in general, was satisfied with the data protection safeguards provided by EFSA. To further improve EFSA's data protection compliance, he recommended that the end-users' attention should be specifically called to the limited nature of the validity check that EFSA carries out, suggesting that they use the database as a pool of applications, rather than as a pool of experts whose skills and reliability have already been carefully checked by EFSA in each case.

To ensure the accuracy and up-to-datedness of the profiles kept in the database, he further recommended that automatic reminders should be sent to experts who failed to update their profiles (or confirm their old profiles) with a warning that failure to respond (after a number of reminders) would entail the automatic deletion of their profiles. EFSA was also requested to provide for an appropriate conservation period for processing data during the selection procedure for specific assignments.

With respect to rights of access, the EDPS recommended that EFSA should provide procedural safeguards to ensure that access rights are granted in a timely manner and without undue constraints (including access to certain internal documents). These may include a time-limit established for response to the request by EFSA, and the obligation for the controller to request the advice of the DPO in case of doubt whether a request can be granted. Finally, as regards information to data subjects, the EDPS noted that certain additional information needed to be provided.