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The final EDPS-DPO meeting of 2025 brought together Data Protection Officers from across the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in Parma, Italy. Held in a hybrid format, the 57th meeting took place at a moment of significant regulatory and technological change for the EU administration. It offered DPOs and the EDPS an opportunity to reflect collectively on recent developments, share experience, and prepare for the challenges ahead.

As the clock ticks down to the launch of a new EU large scale border management system, the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) in autumn 2026, momentum is building to prepare ETIAS for entry into operation and ensure its compliance with data protection law, and other fundamental rights under the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Across sectors - from health research to financial systems - data sharing continues to drive innovation, yet it also intensifies privacy and compliance challenges, making the balance between access to data and confidentiality increasingly difficult. Secure multi-party computation (SMPC) proposes a way to reconcile these seemingly conflicting goals - enabling organisations to jointly compute insights without revealing their underlying data.

The AI Act came into force a little more than a year ago, but the momentum continues to grow across the EU institutions bodies and agencies. On 7 October 2025, more than one hundred representatives gathered, both online and in Brussels, for the second meeting of the AI Act Correspondents Network.

In today's world, personal data moves faster and farther than ever before. A humanitarian organisation operating in a conflict zone, a global health agency managing a pandemic, or a digital platform cooperating with international organisations, all handle personal data that crosses borders, jurisdictions, and legal systems.

Following a long-established tradition, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) trainees work on a joint project to mark the end of their traineeship. They are free to choose the format and topics. In doing so, they have the opportunity to shine a light on issues affecting data protection and privacy, on their own terms.

Second of July 2025, time for the first EDPS - DPO Network meeting of the year.

The 56th meeting since its creation back in 2004, over twenty years ago.

For those of you who do not know, the EDPS - Data Protection Network meeting meets twice a year to discuss data protection priorities and practices in the digital world. A platform for the EDPS to meet with the data protection officers (DPOs) of the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (EUIs).

75 years ago, Robert Schuman laid the foundations of today’s European Union in his visionary appeal for a Europe bound by cooperation and solidarity. The Schuman Declaration was a transformative document that provides a blueprint for the EU’s long-standing commitment to peace, freedom and human rights, including the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection.

“For us at the EDPS - the independent institution in charge of supervising data protection matters within the EU institutions - data protection day is, well, every day.” However, for the rest of the world, data protection is mainly celebrated on 28 January every year. This date marks the signing of Convention 108 in 1981 - a milestone in its own right - since it is the first legally binding international instrument to protect privacy in the digital age.

The AI Act is now in force and the EDPS has put its plan into action.

In 2024, the EDPS proposed a correspondents network to facilitate AI governance in public administrations. Even though the AI Act does not mention or require an AI correspondent, each EU institution recognises the value of such a network and voluntarily assigned one.