Panel for Financial Irregularities - ECA

Opinion of 17 March 2014 on the notification for prior checking received from the Data Protection Officer of the European Court of Auditors concerning the ECA's Panel for Financial Irregularities (Case 2013-0846)

The Opinion regards the European Court of Auditors' Panel for Financial Irregularities ("PFI"), which is competent to examine any infringement by an official or other member of the ECA's staff of a provision of the Financial Regulation or of any rule relating to financial management or the audit of transactions. The EDPS noted with great regret that the processing operation had already been established, but highlighted that the recommendations made by the EDPS need to be adopted accordingly. These focus mainly on ensuring that data subjects concerned benefit from their rights by means of (i) a privacy statement containing all pieces of information required under Articles 11 and 12 of the Regulation and ensuring that every data subject receives the privacy statement when his/her personal data is first recorded or disclosed, (ii) a reference to the right of the person concerned to comment on the facts mentioned in the draft final report in the Rules of Procedure and (iii) rules to safeguard the rights of other data subjects to access and rectification under Articles 13 and 14 of the Regulation.