Outgoing European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), Peter Hustinx, congratulated his successors, who have been appointed today by a joint decision of the European Parliament and the Council. Current Assistant Supervisor, Giovanni Buttarelli, will replace Hustinx in the top job, while Wojciech Wiewiórowski has been appointed Assistant Supervisor.

“How can we develop internet structure, services and apps which respect user privacy and personal data?” This question was at the core of today’s meeting of privacy experts and developers from industry, academia and free software in Berlin. The first workshop of the Internet Privacy Engineering Network (IPEN) was an important step in building a community which works on developing engineering solutions to effectively protect and enhance privacy on the internet.

The efforts of the European Union (EU) to build an integrated model of internet governance and data protection should be complemented by an effective reform of the EU’s own legal framework and the swift adoption of the General Data Protection Regulation, said the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) following the publication of his Opinion on the Commission Communication on Internet Policy and Governance – Europe’s role in shaping the future of Internet

The EDPS today called on the European Council to place the rights of individuals at the core of justice and security policies in the years to come.

The reform of the EU rules on data protection will support the recovering but still fragile European economy, said the European Data Protection Supervisor following the presentation of his Annual Report of activities for 2013 to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) at the European Parliament.

As part of the action plan laid out in his Strategy 2013-2014 to provide guidance to the EU administration, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) has published Guidelines on the Rights of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data.

EU institutions are better at complying with data protection rules and privacy principles than ever before. This is the overall message of the EDPS report on his latest general stocktaking exercise, published today.