Temporary agents - Community Plant Variety Office

Opinion of 20 February 2009 on a notification for prior checking regarding the engagement and use of temporary agents (Case 2008-315)

The CPVO engages long term and short-term temporary agents (TAs) for certain tasks. Personal data of applicants are used and processed during the recruitment procedure of temporary agents in order to evaluate and select the candidates for vacant TA posts. According to the internal Decision on TAs, the selection procedure for recruiting TAs for vacant posts in the CPVO can be carried out in two ways: firstly, upon request of the CPVO, the European Personnel Selection Office (EPSO) organises a selection procedure following the same standards as for competitions for officials, and secondly the CPVO itself can also organise the selection procedure. In the second case, the CPVO requests the candidates to submit the application form and various supporting documents and sets up a Selection Committee to assess the competences and knowledge of the candidates.

As a result of scrutinising the selection process from a data protection perspective, the EDPS made a number of recommendations, among those on the handling of personal information collected in the application process, on the data retention period, revision of the text and display of privacy statement.