Public procurement procedures - Council

Opinion of 19 July 2007 on a notification for prior checking on the public procurement procedures (Case 2007-275)

Data are collected and managed by the Procurement Coordination Unit with the purpose to evaluate the eligibility of economic operators to participate in the procurement procedure, and/or to evaluate the content of tenders submitted during the procurement procedure with the view to award the contract.

Considering that tenderers may be natural persons or the personal aspects of employees may also play a crucial role in the evaluation of tenders, the processing has to be prior checked by the EDPS in the light of Article 27(b) of the Regulation 45/2001. Article 27(a) also applies, since the processing operation may also imply keeping information included in criminal records received from the tenderers.

Some of the EDPS' recommendations concern the setting up of a retention period and the drafting of a note of information available on the PCU website. It has also been recommended that specific clauses should be added in the Confidentiality Agreement indicating explicitly on one hand that the processor shall act only on instructions from the controller and on the other hand ensuring that the obligations with regard to confidentiality and security laid down in the national law by virtue of Article 17(3), second indent, of Directive 95/46/EC are incumbent on the processor.