Brussels, 07/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 6 April, the European Commission threatened to bring Germany before the Court of Justice for a second time unless it complies with the ruling of 9 March 2010 (C-518/07), which set out the requirement that data protection supervisory authorities had to act in “complete independence”. The following stage would be action before the Court, or the Court may be requested to impose a lump sum or penalty payment if there is not compliance within two months.
The requirement of independence for data protection supervisory authorities is expressly set out in the 1995 EU Data Protection Directive (Directive 95/46/EC), which aims to protect the freedoms and fundamental rights of citizens while, at the same time, ensuring the free movement of data within the internal market. Nonetheless, despite the 2010 ruling, this requirement is not always met in 15 of the 16 German Länder, where data protection control is still either assigned to the data protection commissioner of the respective Land or general Land government organisations, both of which are subject to state scrutiny. In its ruling, the Court held that such state scrutiny is not consistent with the requirements of independence within the meaning of the EU Data Protection Directive, as such scrutiny could call into question the authority's task of establishing a fair balance between the right to private life and the free movement of personal data. (F.G./transl.jl)