Investigative function - OLAF

The purpose of the processing activity under analysis is to reinforce OLAF's independence by regular monitoring of the implementation of the investigative function. At the Request of the Director or on its own initiative, the committee shall deliver opinions to the Director concerning the activities of the Office, without however interfering with the conduct of investigations in progress, as required by Article 11 of Regulation 1073/99. The Supervisory Committee (SC) is neither part of OLAF, nor part of an institution. It is a committee set up by the Commission under Community law (Article 4 of Commission Decision 1999/352/EC, ECSC, Euratom and Article 11 of Regulation 1073/99). Just as any other consultative committee established by the Commission, the SC must be considered, for the purposes of Regulation 45/2001, as an emanation of the Commission and thus bound by the Regulation.

 

The EDPS has issued an opinion on this procedure which concludes that on a general basis the procedure complies with the principles established in the data protection regulation. However, the EDPS did make some recommendations mainly as concerns the respect for the data quality principle. Indeed, a methodology should be established describing the different steps to be followed in the access' requests, previous to the access to the whole CMS (Case Management System) file. Furthermore, access to the CMS files (on-going, closed and non-cases) may only take place on a case-by-case basis. When such access is requested, a note should be included in the CMS file specifying the reasons that justify the provision of access.