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10
Jan
2008
Opinions Prior Check and Prior Consultations

e-Tendering - Council

Opinion of 10 January 2008 on a notification on e-Tendering application covering the Council's public procurement procedures (Case 2007-573)

The e-Tendering processing operation, carried out by the Council, is an electronic procurement service which collects data with the purpose of awarding contracts to the selected economic operators. It intends to replace in the long term the current manual processing operation related to public procurement procedures which has already been prior-checked (Opinion of 19 July 2007, case 2007-275). The main purpose of introducing this system is to increase the efficiency and transparency of the procurement process.
 
Considering that the categories of data collected within the e-Tendering application as well as the purpose are identical to those described and analysed at the Council's "public procurement procedures", already prior-checked by the EDPS, Articles 27(2)(a) and 27(2)(b) are applicable following the same line of arguments already exposed in the Opinion of 19 July 2007. 
 

Some of the recommendations made by the EDPS are the following: It was underlined that a set of predefined data should be kept in the light of the duration of each long term contract awarded in each case. Thus, depending on the duration of the contract, data should be erased immediately after they are no longer in use. Moreover, a precise period for the conservation of registered data should be adopted; it should not be excessive to the purpose for which they will further be processed. In the declaration on "personal data protection", it was pointed out, inter alia, that the obligation of the economic operators to inform their employees or subcontractors about their rights related to Article 11 and 12 of the Regulation should be mentioned. The economic operators should make sure that all relevant information, which will be published on the site of the Council, can be accessible to them. It should also be indicated in the Confidentiality agreement that the experts have a legal obligation to process data in conformity with the principles of data protection as provided in Regulation 45/2001.

Available languages: English
Topics
Privacy in the EU Institutions
Procurements, Grants, Experts
26
Oct
2007
Opinions Prior Check and Prior Consultations

National experts - EMEA

Opinion of 26 October 2007 on a notification for prior checking regarding national expert's expression of interest (Case 2007-423)

The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) collects expressions of interest from national experts to be seconded to the institution. The processing in this framework implies operations such as collection, organisation, storage, consultation and distribution of CVs in order to set up a reserve list of potential candidates. A curriculum vitae must be attached to the applications. The applications received are used for selecting suitable candidates.
On the facts, the collection and further processing of personal data of job applicants is carried out in the legitimate exercise of EMEA's activities and authority. An EMEA Executive Director's Decision laying down the rules on the secondment of national experts constitutes the legal basis of the processing operation.
After examination of EMEA's notification EDPS concludes there is no reason to believe that there is a breach of the provisions of Regulation 45/2001. However, EDPS recommends EMEA should:
  • if candidates include data which are irrelevant and excessive in relation with the purposes of the processing, EMEA has to make sure that they are deleted in the most appropriate way.
  • publish the Executive Director's Decision on the adoption of implementing rules relating to the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal and the free movement of such data of 12 June 2007 on its website,
  • adopt and publish a specific policy statement concerning this processing operation which should refer to all the provisions of Article 11.
Available languages: English, French
Topics
Privacy in the EU Institutions
Procurements, Grants, Experts
11
Sep
2007
Opinions Prior Check and Prior Consultations

Conflict of interest of special advisers - Commission

Opinion of 11 September 2007 on a notification for prior checking on verification of lack of conflict of interest of special advisers and its publication on Europa website (Case 2007-294)

The European Commission can engage a special adviser who, by reason of his/her special qualifications, assists the Commission either regularly or for a specified period. Before the engagement, the Commission analyses the activities of special advisers in order to avoid conflict of interest with their future activity as special advisers. Then, the special advisers' name, CV, photo, mandate as well as the declaration on honour will be published on the Europa website.
 
The EDPS has issued an opinion on the verification of lack of conflict of interest of special advisers and on publication of their personal data on Europa website. The EDPS 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 raising awareness regarding the publication of potentially sensible personal data on the Europa website. The EDPS suggested that the publication of the special advisers' photo should be optional and that the Commission staff should verify, before the publication on the Europa website, if the data included by the special adviser in his/her Curriculum Vitae are not irrelevant or excessive in relation to the purpose of the processing.
Available languages: English, French
Topics
Privacy in the EU Institutions
Procurements, Grants, Experts
Conflicts of Interest