EDPS outlines lack of compliance of several EU institutions and bodies with Video-Surveillance Guidelines

The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued today a Follow-up Report outlining the status of compliance of European institutions and bodies with the Video-Surveillance Guidelines issued by the EDPS in March 2010.

Giovanni Buttarelli, Assistant EDPS, states: "Video-surveillance by European institutions and bodies is a matter where fundamental rights are at stake. As an expression of their institutional accountability and good administration, institutions need to comply and demonstrate compliance with the Guidelines. As a supervisory authority, the EDPS must and will ensure that they do".

The EDPS takes note of the considerable efforts undertaken by those institutions and bodies which have submitted their state-of-play reports, in particular in terms of overall participation levels, the limited use of "intrusive" CCTV and "privacy by design" approaches. The EDPS is reassured that the Guidelines contributed to help raise the level of awareness and transparency regarding video-surveillance matters within the bodies.

At the same time, almost two years after the adoption of the Guidelines and more than two years after having started the consultation process, the EDPS is disappointed to see that the implementation of the Guidelines has been put on hold or significantly delayed in several institutions. This regards matters such as the content of on-the-spot notices, the publication of online video-surveillance policy documents, the lack of impact assessments as well as insufficient data protection training. Next to highlighting best practices, the Follow-up Report therefore also underlines the shortcomings of those institutions lagging behind in their efforts to ensure compliance with the Guidelines.

This Follow-up Report presents a systematic and comparative analysis of the state-of-play reports received from a total of 42 EU-institutions and bodies.