One year ago, the EDPS had the pleasure and honour to take part in the first high-level event on Data-protection in the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership Region, organised by the SIGMA Programme; the Eastern Partnership Regional Fund for Public Administration; the Regional Cooperation Council and the Regional School of Public Administration.
This Data Protection Week in Brussels was a success and a wonderful opportunity to meet, share and learn from representatives from data protection authorities (DPAs) and public institutions from Albania; Armenia; Azerbaijan; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Georgia; Kosovo; Moldova; Montenegro; North-Macedonia; Serbia and Ukraine. This event was also an opportune time to plant my favourite seed, the seed of cooperation, with some of the closest partners of the EU.
Building on this fruitful encounter and with the aim to further strengthen the partnership between the DPAs of the two regions and their EU counterparts, this year the organisers teamed-up with the European Commission to develop a Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership Region’s Data Protection Academy. This initiative took place on 10 and 11 September.
On 12 September, we welcomed colleagues from the Western Balkans and Eastern Partnership Region to our premises for a full day of meetings to discuss the practical application of data protection to uphold individuals’ privacy.
Supervisor Wojciech Wiewiórowski insisted on the strategic relevance of strong and continued international cooperation, conducive to elevating data protection standards according to shared values and rights.
I presented the EDPS’ strategy on Artificial Intelligence, detailing our current actions to embrace and face challenges as well as opportunities that AI systems may bring. As the data protection authority of the EU institutions bodies, offices and agencies, the EDPS aims to ensure that AI is developed in a human-centric and sustainable way, respecting privacy and data protection principles.
Complementing these exchanges, a large portion of the meeting was dedicated to discussions on more technical and practical data protection matters. As such, I can only welcome the richness of the exchanges on a wide range of topics of common interest, such as the interplay between the GDPR and the new European data regulations, including the Digital Services Act, Digital Markets Act, Data Governance Act and the Data Act. There was also time to discuss our respective investigation policies and methodologies, as well as the Council of Europe's legal framework and cooperation activities on data protection. Followed by international transfers, including in law enforcement, as well as the regulation on global data flows, biometrics and facial recognition, to name a few examples.
What is most interesting during these meetings is the possibility to listen and learn from our partners from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region: the opportunities, but also some of the hurdles they encounter in matters of compliance and enforcement of data protection. I know for certain that the EDPS draws from these varied experiences to inform its work. In turn, we also shared our approaches to certain problems or situations as a data protection authority. This truly encapsulates the meaning of cooperation; the act of working together to reach a common goal. Such exchanges are a precondition for putting cooperation in action successfully.
This second encounter continues to feed my belief that cooperation amongst DPAs is a condition sine qua non to move forward in the field of data protection and the emerging field of AI regulation, even more so with the increasing pace at which the digital landscape is evolving.
Wojciech Wiewiórowski and I are grateful to organisers and participants from the Western Balkans and the Eastern Partnership Region for their engagement and thought-provoking contributions. Initiatives like these inspire us and confirm our ambition to act with others in a way that promotes high data protection standards globally, in the interest of all.
A lot remains to be done, as DPAs are facing endless challenges; I am already looking forward to continuing and even intensifying such partnerships further.