Technologies

Le rapport, qui couvre 2008 en tant que quatrième année complète d'activité du CEPD, conclut le premier mandat du CEPD et donne l'occasion de dresser un bilan des développements intervenus depuis le départ.

Le rapport montre que des progrès significatifs ont été réalisés, tant dans le rôle de supervision du CEPD que dans sa fonction de conseil. La plupart des institutions et organes communautaires sont en bonne voie dans le respect des règles de protection des données. Des défis importants doivent néanmoins encore être relevés. Le travail de supervision du CEPD entend donc davantage mettre l'accent sur l'évaluation du niveau de conformité dans les institutions et agences, notamment par des vérifications plus systématiques sur place, et d'un suivi de la mise en œuvre des recommandations dans le cadre des contrôles préalables.

Le CEPD a également amélioré sa fonction de conseiller des institutions européennes et a présenté des avis sur un nombre croissant de propositions législatives. La majorité des avis a continué de concerner des questions relatives au domaine de la liberté, de la sécurité et de la justice. D'autres thématiques, telles que la révision de la directive "Vie privée et communications électroniques", l'accès du public aux documents, la mise en place de systèmes d'information et l'accès à ces systèmes, les soins de santé transfrontaliers, et les nouvelles technologies ont également occupé une place prépondérante.

Vous pouvez obtenir une version papier de ce rapport annuel sur EU Bookshop .

Avis sur la communication de la Commission intitulée "Un espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice au service des citoyens", JO C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8

The EDPS has adopted an opinion on the European Commission's Communication of 10 June 2009 entitled “An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen”. The Communication is the Commission's contribution to the discussions on the new EU programme for the next five years in the area of justice and home affairs, the so called Stockholm programme, which is due to be adopted by the European Council in December 2009.

The EDPS supports the attention that has been devoted in the Communication to the protection of fundamental rights, and in particular the protection of personal data, as one of the key issues of the future framework for EU action on the questions of citizenship, justice, security, asylum and immigration. He fully endorses the Commission's view that more emphasis should be given to data protection in the areas concerned, and calls for the European Council to follow the same approach when adopting the Stockholm multi-annual programme.

Taking the need for protection of fundamental rights as main angle of the analysis, the EDPS opinion focuses on the following issues:

• need for a comprehensive data protection scheme: the EDPS fully supports the call for a comprehensive data protection scheme covering all areas of EU competence, regardless of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty;
• data protection principles: the EDPS welcomes the intention of the Commission to reaffirm a number of basic principles of data protection. He emphasises the importance of the purpose limitation principle as a cornerstone of data protection law. Focus should also be given to the possibilities for improving the effectiveness of the application of data protection principles, in particular through instruments than can reinforce the responsibilities of the data controllers;
• Opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen, OJ C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8European information model: the EDPS notes the developments towards a European information model and an EU Information Management Strategy with great interest and underlines the attention that should be given in these projects to data protection elements, to be further elaborated in the Stockholm programme. The architecture for information exchange should be based on "privacy by design" and "Best Available Techniques".

Avis sur la proposition de règlement concernant la création du système "Eurodac" pour la comparaison des empreintes digitales aux fins de l'application efficace du règlement (CE) n° [.../...] (établissant les critère et mécanismes de détermination de l'Etat membre responsable de l'examen d'une demande de protection internationale présentée dans l'un des Etats membres par un ressortissant de pays tiers ou un apatride) [COM(2008) 825], JO C 229, 23.09.2009, p. 6

The Proposal is a revision of the EURODAC Regulation and its implementing regulation, Council Regulation No 407/2002/EC, and it aims at inter alia:

• improving the efficiency of the implementation of the EURODAC Regulation,
• ensuring consistency with the asylum acquis evolved since the adoption of the above-mentioned Regulation,
• updating a number of provisions taking account of factual developments since the adoption of the Regulation,
• establishing a new management framework.

The EDPS supports this Proposal and draws attention to the need to ensure full consistency between the EURODAC and Dublin Regulations. The EDPS sees the need for a better coordination and harmonization at EU level of the procedures for fingerprinting, whether they concern asylum seekers or any other persons subject to the EURODAC procedure. He draws special attention to the question of the age limits for fingerprinting, and in particular the difficulties occurring in several Member States to determine the age of young asylum seekers. The EDPS insists on a clarification of the provisions regarding the rights of the data subjects, and in particular he underlines that the national data controllers are primarily responsible to ensure the application of these rights.

Deuxième avis relatif au réexamen de la directive 2002/58/CE concernant le traitement des données à caractère personnel et la protection de la vie privée dans le secteur des communications électroniques (directive "vie privée et communications électroniques"), JO C 128, 06.06.2009, p. 28

This Opinion follows upon a first EDPS Opinion, as well as Comments, in which recommendations were made to help ensure that the proposed changes effectively provide for the best possible protection of personal data.

This Second Opinion comes as a response to the Council's Common Position which, on a number of critical points, fails to endorse some of the data protection safeguards proposed by the European Parliament and the European Commission or previously recommended by the EDPS. The recommendations presented in this Opinion aim at streamlining some of the provisions of the Directive, while at the same time ensuring an adequate level of data protection and privacy.

The Opinion particularly focuses on the provisions relating to the setting up of a mandatory security breach notification system for which the Supervisor believes there is still some room for improvement.