Newsletter (114)

75 years ago, Robert Schuman laid the foundations of today’s European Union in his visionary appeal for a Europe bound by cooperation and solidarity. The Schuman Declaration was a transformative document that provides a blueprint for the EU’s long-standing commitment to peace, freedom and human rights, including the fundamental rights to privacy and data protection.

Every year at the EDPS, we celebrate Europe Day, the achievements and opportunities it made possible to Europeans. Honouring the legacy of those who advanced the European project is as important as looking ahead and listening to the generations that will shape its future.

To mark the occasion, EDPS trainees have written a blogpost sharing their personal experiences and views about what Europe, and the European Union, mean to them. These are young people who were either born in the EU or witnessed their country joining the EU. Have a read on what they have to say.

Read blogpost written by EDPS trainees; young voices who represent the future of the EU and what it has to offer.

On 23 April, the EDPS published its Annual Report 2024, a year marked by actions taken for the future of data protection, preparing for diverse possibilities and risks that the digital landscape presents.

As examples of the EDPS’ impact throughout the year, the following actions were taken, based on the EDPS Strategy pillars of Foresight, Action and Solidarity:

• creating an AI Unit, preparing and executing an AI strategy;
• monitoring and analysing AI-led technologies;
• providing tools to EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies to comply with EU data protection law;
• advising the EU-co legislators on upcoming EU regulations directly impacting people’s privacy and data protection.

More of our actions of the year 2024 can be found in our EDPS Annual Report and its executive summary, soon to be available in all languages of the EU. 

The World Trade Organisation is working towards an Agreement on Electronic Commerce covering a wide range of digital trade disciplines, such as data flows, privacy, cybersecurity, consumer protection, and more.

The European Union is now preparing its position in the World Trade Organisation for the EU to join a possible consensus at the General Council of the World Trade Organisation on the adoption of the envisaged Agreement.

Since the planned Agreement would have an impact on data protection in the EU, the EDPS provided an Opinion on this matter on the 4th April 2025. The Opinion welcomes that the Agreement includes provisions on data protection, and respects the legal frameworks for the protection of the personal data of users of electroni1c commerce of the World Trade Organisation’s members. 

Read more on this Opinion here

The EDPS issued recommendations on the EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement on 21 March 2025. This comes as the next step of a series of initiatives between the EU and Singapore, including their joint Free Trade Agreement and the EU-Singapore Partnership and Cooperation Agreement.

The Digital Trade Agreement concerns a wide range of matters, such as cross-border data flows with trust, data localisation requirements and personal data protection.

Trading with other countries, including countries outside the EU/EEA opens up various opportunities for the EU and its citizens. However, transfers of personal data from the EU to Singapore have to comply with the EU’s data protection rules.

The EDPS recommends that the EU and Singapore consider ways to complement the Digital Trade Agreement by increasing convergence between the EU and Singaporean data protection regimes, for example by intensifying cooperation and dialogue on existing transfer mechanisms. This may lead to further alignment of their respective tools for personal data transfers, while ensuring that the high standards of data protection in the EU remain unaffected.

Read Opinion here

If you are an avid reader or follow data protection affairs and the work that the EDPS does to protect your digital future, you know that we supervise the way EU institutions, bodies, offices, agencies - or EUIs - process personal data or the measures that may impact your privacy. But, did you know that this includes also supervising the EU bodies, offices and agencies of the area of freedom, security and justice.

The area of freedom, security and justice - or AFSJ - regroups a wide range of policy areas, including the management of EU borders, asylum and migration, police cooperation and the fight against crime, and judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

This involves the processing of personal data, sometimes large volumes of it, which may have considerable, and negative, impacts if this information is mishandled, such as damaging an individual’s life, if they are wrongly linked to a crime for example.

It is therefore important that the EDPS supervises the processing of this data done by:

• the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol);
• the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation (Eurojust);
• the European Public Prosecutors’ Office (EPPO);
• the European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex);
• the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA);
• the European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (euLISA).

These EU bodies, offices and agencies have specific powers and mandates, therefore our supervision efforts, year upon year, is tailored to their specific challenges.

Amongst our actions, in 2024, here is an overview of what we focused on.

We continued preparing for the supervision of the interoperability framework that will allow the exchange of information between multiple databases of information on AFSJ- related topics, such as the VISA Information System, Schengen Information System and European Asylum Dactyloscopic Database for fingerprints. In this area, we focused focus on monitoring and providing guidance on the development of ETIAS: the European Travel Information and Authorisation System; and deepening cooperation with national Data Protection Authorities for the supervision of data flows through this new data ecosystem.

Other of our activities included providing advice on the processing of personal data with the help of of Artificial Intelligence tools by AFSJ agencies, bodies and offices, including on machine learning in police and criminal justice matters.

We also reinforced our cooperation with EU data protection authorities to coordinate the supervision of large-scale IT systems and AFSJ agencies, bodies and offices, such as Europol and Eurojust, when investigating complaints or auditing databases. 

More details find here