Privacy in the EU Institutions

Opinion of 4 October 2007 on a notification for prior checking on the Early Warning System (Case 2007-243)

The purpose of the Early Warning System (EWS) is to ensure the circulation of restricted information concerning third parties who could represent a threat to the Communities' financial interests and reputation or to any other fund administered by the Communities, with respect to which the Commission has a reasonable chance of entering, or has already entered, a contractual/conventional relationship with them.

As regards OLAF's function in the EWS, one has to differentiate between two separate roles:

• OLAF in its capacity as an investigative body may provide information leading to W1a and b flagging under Article 2(1) and (2) of the EWS Decision and W2a and W3b flagging under Article 3 and 4 of the EWS Decision.
• Like other DGs of the European Commission OLAF is eligible to initiate different flaggings not covered by its capacity as an investigative body. These flaggings are not analysed in the present opinion. OLAF's relation to the EWS as a 'normal Directorate-General' of the European Commission has already been prior checked by the EDPS. Access to the warnings also does not fall within the scope of this opinion.

Opinion of 3 October 2007 on a notification for prior checking on non-cases and prima facie non-cases (Case 2007-205)

Opinion of 3 October 2007 on the notification for prior checking regarding the "certification procedure" dosser (Case 2007-434)

The main recommendations made by the EDPS in the context of his opinion on the certification procedure concern the storage of data and the information supplied to data subjects.

Opinion of 3 October 2007 on the notification for prior checking concerning the attestation procedure (Case 2007-435)

The Court of Justice adopted the implementing rules for the attestation procedure by decision of the Court's Administrative Committee on 15 June 2005. Officials employed in categories C and D on 1 May 2004 are likely to have promotions capped at grades AST 7 and 5 respectively. These ceilings may be abolished, however, by an "attestation" procedure. This procedure is based on criteria relating to seniority, experience, merit and level of training and depends on the availability of posts in the AST function group.

The main recommendations made by the EDPS in his opinion on the attestation procedure concern data storage and the provision of information to data subjects.