On Thursday 7 February at its plenary session in Brussels, the "Article 29" Working Party, which brings together the member states of the EU's personal data protection authorities (G29), elected its President, Andrea Jelinek, the current President of the Austrian Personal Data Protection Authority.
Asked about her goals for the G29 during a press conference, Ms Jelinek replied that her programme was, “to be the defender of data protection and to raise awareness regarding this fundamental right”.
This announcement also provided the occasion for the outgoing President, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, from France, to draw up a balance sheet of her four years at the head of the G29. She stated that with 20 plenary sessions, 165 subgroup meetings, 22 opinions adopted and 6 joint investigations into Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Yahoo, WhatsApp and more recently, Uber (see EUROPE 11917), “The WP29 has worked incredibly hard”.
Privacy Shield. Returning to one of the flagship subject of her Presidency: the transatlantic personal data protection mechanism, the ‘Privacy Shield’, she declared, “The WP 29 has played a crucial role in particular in setting the tempo”. According to the latter, the concerns and warnings from the group have helped to, “set a global standard for international data transfer" (see EUROPE 11920).
Another important dossier in her mandate was the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR), which will enter into force on 25 May next. She considers that the WP 29 has been very active in the preparation of the GDP as well as in its implementation phase.
Mr Falque-Pierrotin therefore announced that out of the 12 guidelines planned, two of them were still expected to be the subject of public consultation but that by the time of the next plenary group session, all the guidelines will have been finalised. She concluded, “On GDPR, we’ve done all that could be done in the time to get prepared”.
With the entry into force of the GDPR, the WP 29 will have to face another challenge, because it will subsequently become the European Data Protection Board and will be in charge of ensuring coherent application in the EU and delivering binding decisions, opinions and guidelines. Ms Jelinek should also become the President of the new body. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)