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Transparency

The EU institutions and bodies make decisions and adopt legislation that affect the lives of all those living in its Member States. The decisions affecting them must be taken as openly as possible. You have the right to know why, how and who is involved in making these decisions and laws. You also have the fundamental right of access to the documents prepared in these activities.

Similarly, transparency is a core principle in data protection. You have the right to know which of your personal data are collected, used, consulted or otherwise processed and to what extent the personal data are or will be processed.

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24
Mar
2011

Public access to documents and data protection

Transparency and data protection are both essential elements of democratic life in the EU, and both contribute to good governance. The interaction between these rights - i.e. the way in which to deal with public access to documents containing personal data - may however be perceived as difficult. Providing guidelines for the EU administration, the paper describes the two rights and their legal backgrounds. It also gives a list of examples and a checklist.

When dealing with these cases, it is imperative that the responsible officials make a concrete and individual examination of the specific document. Firstly, disclosure can only be refused if the privacy of an individual is at stake. Secondly, the negative effect of disclosure of someone's personal data must be substantial and thirdly it has to be examined if data protection legislation allows disclosure.

 

Public access to documents containing personal data after the Bavarian Lager ruling
Available languages: German, English, French
Background document
Available languages: German, English, French
Summary
Available languages: Danish, German, Greek, English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Finnish, Swedish
Speech delivered at LIBE Committee on 12 July 2005
Available languages: English, French
Conclusions on releasing further information about lobbyists, 31 August 2006
Available languages: English, French
Topics
3
Dec
2010

2009 Annual Report - A year of major importance for the fundamental right to data protection

The report shows that 2009 was of major importance for the fundamental right to data protection.

This is due to a number of key developments: the entering into force of the Lisbon Treaty, ensuring a strong legal basis for comprehensive data protection in all areas of EU policy; the start of a public consultation on the future of the EU legal framework for data protection; and the adoption of a new five-year policy programme for the area of freedom, security and justice ("Stockholm Programme") with the emphasis on the importance of data protection in this area.

The EDPS has been highly involved in these fields and is determined to pursue this course in the near future. 

You can obtain a paper version of this Annual Report on EU Bookshop

Full text of the Annual Report:
Available languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish
Summary:
Available languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, English, Spanish, French, Irish, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish
24
Sep
2009

2008 Annual Report - First mandate concludes with substantial progress in data protection compliance

This Report, which covers 2008 as the fourth full year of activity of the EDPS, concludes the first EDPS mandate and provides an opportunity to take stock of developments since the start.

The report shows that significant progress was achieved both in the EDPS supervisory and advisory tasks. Most Community institutions and bodies are making good progress in ensuring compliance with data protection rules, but there are still great challenges ahead. The EDPS supervision work is therefore putting more emphasis on measuring the level of compliance in practice, in particular through more systematic verifications on the spot, and on monitoring the implementation of recommendations in prior checking.

The EDPS also further improved his performance as an advisor to the European institutions and submitted opinions on an increasing number of legislative proposals. The majority of the EDPS opinions continued to concern issues related to the area of freedom, security and justice. Other subjects, such as e-privacy, public access to documents, the establishment of information systems and access to those systems, cross-border healthcare and new technologies were also quite prominent.

You can obtain a paper version of this Annual Report on EU Bookshop.

Full text of the Annual Report:
Available languages: German, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Polish
Summary:
Available languages: Bulgarian, Czech, Danish, German, Estonian, Greek, English, Spanish, French, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Hungarian, Maltese, Dutch, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Finnish, Swedish
10
Jul
2009

"Stockholm Programme" - An Area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen

Opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen, OJ C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8

COM(2009) 262 of 10.06.2009
Available languages: English, French