Strasbourg, 26/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Ombudsman, Nikiforos Diamandouros, welcomed the European Commission's decision to revise interpretation of the directive on data protection. This decision follows an investigation by a German citizen who made a complaint about the State of Hamburg to the Commission. He alleged that the public authorities had illegally transmitted personal data to enterprises, knowing full well that the data would be used for marketing purposes. The Commission initially said that the directive did not provide any protection against this. Following the intervention of the European Ombudsman, the Commission agreed to review its position.
In 2004, the complainant, submitted a complaint to the Commission against an infringement made by the State of Hamburg. According to the complainant, the public authorities were hand over personal data, without informing the people concerned, even when it was clear that the data would be used for marketing purposes. The complainant considered that this constituted an infringement to the European directive on personal data. The Commission considered that this was not covered by the directive, so the complainant went to the European Ombudsman. Following the investigation, in which he consulted the European Data Protection Supervisor, the Ombudsman found that the Commission's interpretation of the Data Protection Directive was too narrow. In a proposal for a friendly solution, the Ombudsman therefore asked the Commission to review its interpretation of the directive. The Commission accepted the friendly solution, stating that it would address the issue with the Member States in order to improve national legislation in he field data protection. The Ombudsman's decision can be consulted at: (http: //http://www.ombudsman.europa.eu/decision/en/042467.htm ).