Safeguarding your privacy: appointing Europe’s new data protection watchdog

Celebrities aren’t the only ones who should care about their personal data being kept safe. The Parliament plays a key role in deciding who the European data protection supervisor should be for the next five years. The supervisor is in charge of protecting personal data and privacy as well as promoting good practice in the EU institutions and bodies. Today the EP’s civil liberties committee will question the candidates from 19.00 to 22.30 CET, while the vote takes place tomorrow at 17.00 CET.

The civil liberties committee will today (20 October) question  the candidates for the posts of European data protection supervisor (currently held by Peter Hustinx)  and the assistant supervisor (at the moment held by Giovanni Buttarelli).

The five candidates short-listed by the European Commission are:
• European data protection supervisor: Mr Giovanni Buttarelli (Italy), Ms Noëlle Lenoir (France) and Mr Yann Padova (France).
• Assistant supervisor: Ms Cinzia Biondi (UK), Mr Giovanni Buttarelli (Italy) and Mr Wojciech Wiewiórowski (Poland).

Learn more about the candidates on our hearing page.

What does the data protection supervisor do?

The European data protection supervisor is devoted to protecting personal data and privacy and promoting good practice in the EU institutions and bodies. This is achieved by monitoring the EU institutions’ processing of personal data; advising on policies and legislation that affect privacy; and cooperating with other data protection authorities to ensure a consistent level of data protection in Europe.

Procedure

The civil liberties committee will vote on the candidates by secret ballot on Tuesday 21 October at 17.00 CET. Afterwards the Parliament and the Council will still have to agree on the final appointment.