Privatsphäre in den EU-Organen

Opinion of 19 May 2009 on the notification for prior checking regarding the prevention of harassment (Case 2008-477)

The Advisory Committee on Harassment and its Prevention at the Workplace functions in the European Parliament with the multiple purpose of promoting a peaceful and productive working environment, preventing and/or stopping harassment of staff (officials and other servants) of the European Parliament (EP), playing a role of conciliation and mediation, training and information and playing an active role within the EP's existing health promotion network. The ACPH combats psychological and sexual harassment on the basis of complaints. In the framework of its activities, the ACPH can process various personal data, including sensitive data, related to a particular individual.

After careful analysis of the data processing activities, the EDPS advised to improve different aspects of the processing, inter alia, regarding the confidentiality of handling personal data, reconsidering the retention period and drawing up a privacy notice and provide personalised information to the person concerned.

Opinion of 19 May 2009 on the notification for prior checking regarding the processing of personal data in DG ENTR Entreprise Data Warehouse (Case 2008-487)

The DG ENTR Data Warehouse (EDW) is a system in charge of retrieving data from multiple data sources (ABAC, COMREF, SYSLOG and DG ENTR's in-house financial data). The main goal is to provide managers with powerful reports presenting metrics of performance, like the 'Scoreboard' report, at destination of the Head of Units, Directors and Director General.

The EDPS examined the processing in the light of the legal requirements of Regulation (EC) 45/2001 and concluded that there was no breach of the Regulation provided certain recommendations are taken into account and notably:

• The Data Warehouse should be limited to the use of data specified in the current notification and require further authorisation if other databases where to be added as database sources;
• The data minimization principles, the accuracy of data and the necessity to transfer them should be assessed and evaluated;
• DG ENTR should implement specific security measures relating to the planned system's specifications.

Opinion of 18 May 2009 on a notification for prior checking regarding trainee applications and recruitment (Case 2008-730)
The prior check concerned the processing of personal data in the collection of trainee selection and recruitment. The EDPS examined the processing in the light of the legal requirements of Regulation (EC) 45/2001 and concluded that there was no breach of the Regulation provided certain recommendations are taken into account and notably as concerns requests made to the medical service in case of requests for a disability allowance by the trainees. The Personnel and Budget Sector should limit its request to the medical service to disability related data which is strictly necessary for making a decision about the needs of the trainee and the amount of the additional grant to be supplied to disabled trainees and persons in charge of handling that data in the Personnel sector should be made aware that they are processing sensitive information and they should respect the confidentiality requirement.

Opinion of 18 May 2009 on the notification for prior checking concerning the promotion and regrading procedure case (Case 2009-018)

The prior checking relates to the processing of personal data in the context of the Translation Centre's promotion/regrading procedure.  The procedure is based on an individual promotion/regrading form which is circulated between the different groups of users concerned.  The promotion/regrading forms might also be transferred to other Community institutions and agencies if an official/temporary staff member transfers, or applies for a transfer, to another institution/agency.  There is also a promotion file composed of individual promotion/regrading forms, the list of officials and temporary staff members eligible for promotion/regrading and the list of officials promoted.  The promotion files are kept until officials/temporary staff members (or their dependants) have exhausted all channels of appeal after termination of service and for no longer than ten years as from the last pension payment.

After examining the case, the EDPS reached the conclusion that only relevant data should be stored in the data subject's personal file; that only relevant data should be transferred to another institution in the event of the data subject's transfer there; and that the specific information note should include the general information headings.