Charte des droits fondamentaux de l’Union européenne

The EDPS Annual Report 2025 looks back over a year when our work was characterised by the operationalisation of our expanding mandate, guided by our strategic principles: Foresight, Action and Solidarity.

This year’s highlights include:

• the expansion of the AI Unit and activities;
• a record 145 legislative consultations;
• increased scrutiny of international data transfers and large-scale IT systems in the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies;
• analysis and foresight related to emerging technologies.

The digital future is here. We are guiding the EU administration through this transformation with expertise and an unwavering focus on your rights.

This background paper explores the requirement of respecting the ‘essence’ of the rights to respect for private life and of right to the protection of personal data whenever these rights are limited under European Union (EU) law.

The requirement is explicitly established in Article 52(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU, and currently also mentioned in EU secondary law. With the aim of facilitating further reflection and discussion on the requirement’s application notably when limitations of the right to personal data protection are at stake, the paper reviews current knowledge on the subject and illustrates the significant limitations of existing knowledge.

Taking stock of the relevant literature and case law, mainly of the Court of Justice of the EU and of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), it also identifies a few key issues deserving further analysis and discussion. The paper concludes by suggesting it can be useful to focus not on speculating about what would be the essence of the rights at stake, but rather on when must a limitation of a right be regarded as a breach of the essence requirement.

EDPS Opinion on the Recommendation for a Council Decision authorising the opening of negotiations on behalf of the European Union for a Council of Europe convention on artificial intelligence, human rights, democracy and the rule of law