International organisations

International organisations with offices in Europe are in many cases exempted from national laws. This often results in a lack of a legal framework for data protection, despite the fact that there are several overlapping frameworks in Europe. The International conference addressed this issue in a resolution adopted in Sydney in 2003, calling for "international and supra-national bodies to formally commit themselves to (…) the principal international instruments dealing with data protection and privacy".

In September 2005, the EDPS organised, together with the Council of Europe and the OECD, a workshop on data protection as part of good governance in international organisations. The objective was to raise awareness of universal data protection principles and their consequences for the work in international organisations. Representatives from some 20 organisations took part in discussions on protection of personal data of staff and other people concerned. Processing of sensitive data (relating to health, refugee status, or criminal convictions) was also addressed.

A second workshop was organised by the European Patent Office in Munich in March 2007. Representatives from international organisations then discussed issues of common relevance such as the role of an internal and independent data protection officer, how to establish a data protection regime and challenges of international cooperation with entities having different data protection standards.

A third workshop will take place in the European University Institute of Florence, on the 27th and 28th of May 2010.