On Tuesday, 26 November, the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE) voted in support of Wojciech Wiewiórowski’s candidacy for the post of European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). With a total of 36 votes, the Polish candidate finished ahead of the French candidate, Yann Padova, who received 25 votes, and the Hungarian candidate, Endre Győző Szabó, who received three.
Immediately after the vote in Strasbourg, Wiewiórowski said he was delighted to be able to continue the work he has been doing with Giovanni Buttarelli over the past five years, but also happy to be able to take up new challenges, such as that presented by 5G.
Asked by EUROPE about his priorities for the next five years, he mentioned finalising the process of reforming the Data Protection Act. He said that “It is still not finished (…) the Council didn’t manage to have the common approach to the so-called e-privacy regulation” (see EUROPE 12375/11).
He also believes that use of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) needs to be encouraged. Another of his top priorities will be all technological developments, not just artificial intelligence, he said.
The previous day, each candidate had 45 minutes to support their nomination before the European Parliament LIBE Committee. They also provided a written response to three questions relating to their experience, their vision of the future of the EDPS, and their opinion on exchanging personal data, particularly with non-member States.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski was already an Assistant Supervisor when he took over the reins at the institutional body after the death of Giovanni Buttarelli death at the end of August (see EUROPE 12310/13). During his interview, he particularly stressed his values, his knowledge, and his experience, in both the private and public sectors.
In response to a question from Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany) about how to protect data and privacy in the face of artificial intelligence, he acknowledged that this was a great challenge. In his opinion, we need to start by get past the “marketing concept” and work out what artificial intelligence actually represents.
In his view, the GDPR is a tool that could cover a lot of artificial intelligence requirements. But other provisions may be necessary for some aspects, such as the transparency of algorithms.
In response to a question from Sophie in 't Veld (Renew Europe, Netherlands), he also stated his belief that the powers of the EDPS should be given greater emphasis. He believes that the EDPS should move away from his traditional rationale of providing legal advice and should give more technical advice to the European institutions.
Mr Wiewiórowski also defended a “young approach to data protection”, while admitting that he was also “old enough to remember the times without the computer”.
He said that he believed that the European authorities needed to be intelligent and innovative. They have to be able to adapt to new technologies and business models, but also be able to use them to make data protection more modern, he said.
"For example, if we have a discussion about blockchain, let’s not talk only about the right to be forgotten but let’s also discuss the pros and the successes that it could give us”, he explained.
Next steps. The result of the LIBE Committee vote matches the one taken by Member States on 22 November (see EUROPE 12375/10), thus rendering unnecessary any negotiations between the co-legislators to come up with a name on which they all agree.
The Chair of the LIBE Committee will now forward the result of the vote to the Conference of Presidents (CoP). Once the nomination is confirmed, probably on Thursday, 28 November, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU will formally appoint the new EDPS. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana with Damien Genicot)