Public consultations
The material (opinions, working documents, letters etc.) issued by the Article 29 Working Party (Art. 29 WP), available on this website reflect the views only of the Art. 29 WP which has an advisory status and acts independently. They do not reflect the position of the European Commission.
Please note that it is the policy of the Art. 29 WP to publish on its website the correspondence it receives, as well as its response to such correspondence. Should you not wish that your correspondence, or the response of the Art. 29 WP, be published, in full or in part, either for reasons of business confidentiality, protection of personal data or other legitimate reason, please indicate in advance such reason/s, as well as the parts of the correspondence to which this applies.
All Article 29 Working Party documents between 1997 and November 2016 can be consulted on this archive. Navigation on the left under "Opinions and recommendations". For updates and documents as of November 2016 onwards, please consult the Article 29 Newsroom.
Opinion 06/2014 on the notion of legitimate interests of the data controller under Article 7 of Directive 95/46/EC
On 9 April 2014 the European data protection authorities assembled in the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (WP29), adopted its Opinion 6/2014 on the notion of legitimate interests of the data controller (Working Document WP217
).
In the opinion the WP29 analyses the criteria set out in Article 7 of Directive 95/46/EC for making data processing legitimate. Focusing on the legitimate interests of the controller, it provides guidance on how to apply Article 7(f) under the current legal framework and makes recommendations for future improvements.
The WP29 invited the general public to comment on this Opinion and to this end launched a public consultation, which ran until 27 June 2014. [closed]
Overview (256 kB)of the consultation and contributions received.
Working Document 1/2008 on the protection of children's personal data (General guidelines and the special case of schools)
The Article 29 Working Party adopted a working document on the protection of children's personal data (General guidelines and the special case of schools) (Working Document 147) on 18 February 2008.
This working document is concerned with the protection of information about children. It is aimed primarily at those who handle children's personal data. In the context of schools, this will include teachers and school authorities in particular. It is also aimed at national data protection supervisory authorities, who are responsible for monitoring the processing of such data.
The Commission identified children's rights as one of its main priorities in its Communication on Strategic Objectives 2005-2009: "A particular priority must be effective protection of the rights of children, both against economic exploitation and all forms of abuse". This document, and the comments received on it, will be further examined in the light of the mainstreaming principle, as described in the European Commission's Communication "Towards an EU strategy on the Rights of the Child".
The Article 29 Working Party invited the general public to comment on this Working Document WP 147 and to this end launched a public consultation until June 30th, 2008. [closed]
Working Document on the processing of personal data relating to health in electronic health records (EHR)
The Article 29 Working Party adopted a working document on the processing of personal data relating to health in electronic health records (EHR) (Working Document 131) on 15 February 2007.
In this Working Document the Article 29 Working Party provides guidance on the interpretation of the applicable data protection legal framework for EHR systems and explains some of the general principles. The Working Document also gives indications on the data protection requirements for setting up EHR systems, as well as the applicable safeguards.
The Article 29 Working Party invites the medical professions, all other health care professionals and persons and institutions involved in providing medical services as well as the general public to comment on this Working Document WP 131 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until June 13th, 2007. (closed)
Data protection issues related to RFID technology
On January 19th, the Working Party 29 adopted a Working Document on data protection issues related to RFID technology (Working document 105).
After outlining the potential use of RFID technology in various sectors, the Working Document recalls the need to comply with the basic principles set out in the EC data protection Directives (Directive 95/46/EC and Directive 2002/58EC) whenever personal data is collected using RFID technology. The paper also provides guidance to manufacturers of the technology (RFID tags, readers and applications) as well as RFID standardization bodies on their responsibility towards designing privacy compliant technology in order to enable deployers of the technology to carry out their obligations under the data protection Directive.
The Working Party wishes to give interested parties the opportunity to submit their comments to the Working document 105 and to this end it has launched this public consultation until March 31st, 2005 [closed].
Summary(115 kB) (Working Party Document 111) and contributions received
Binding corporate rules
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Official summary of the public hearing on internal codes of conduct for multinationals drafted by the Dutch Data Protection Authority [11 KB]
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Working Document: [175 KB]
Transfers of personal data to third countries: Applying Article 26(2) of the EU Data Protection Directive to Binding Corporate Rules for International Data Transfers. -
Summary(21 kB) of the contributions received so far to the consultation
- Contributions received
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Working Document:
Video surveillance
Within the past few years a multiplication of video surveillance systems has been observed. This has raised a lively debate in order to identify the conditions and limitations that should apply to the installation and to the implementation of this kind of system as well as the necessary safeguards for data subjects.
Starting from the existence of a variety of different legal situations in the Member States the present working document is meant to provide an initial analysis regarding the application of Directive 95/46/EC. It has been drafted by the group established by Art. 29 of Directive 95/46/EC relating to the protection of personal data. This group is composed of European Data Protection Commissioners.
The public consultation aims to collect the opinion of interest groups on this subject. As a next step the group of European Data Protection Commissioners will possibly adopt a recommendation on this question.
Working Document 67 on the Processing of Personal Data by means of Video Surveillance