Refusal by the European Data Protection Board to grant full public access to draft versions of its statement on international agreements including transfers

European Data Protection Board (EDPB) refused to grant full public access to draft versions of its statement on international agreements including transfers. The European Ombudsman was not convinced by the reasons put forward by the EDPB to refuse access.

The complainant asked the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) for public access to draft versions of its statement on international agreements including data transfers. Following a separate Ombudsman inquiry, the EDPB identified additional documents as falling under the complainant's request, however it refused access to these documents. In doing so, it invoked an exception provided for in the EU legislation on public access to documents, arguing that disclosure could undermine the decision-making process.

Based on an inspection of the documents, the Ombudsman was not convinced by the reasons put forward by the EDPB to refuse access, and proposed as a solution that the EDPB reassess the request and reconsider its decision to deny access to those documents falling within the scope of the complaint. 

The EDPB did not follow this solution proposal and invoked an additional exception for refusing access. As a consequence, the Ombudsman made a finding maladministration, and recommended that the EDPB disclose the documents. 

Read the Recommendation here

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Fully-funded PhD position in AI, Law and Public Power

Image
Erasmus University Rotterdam School of Law, department Law & Markets, is looking for a fulltime PhD researcher in AI, Law and Public Power (4,5 years with 20% teaching tasks). PhD AI, Law and Public Power Are you curious about how artificial intelligence is changing state actor powers? Do you want to conduct critical and in-depth legal research at the intersection of technology, law and power? And would you like to combine that with academic teaching? Then this PhD position at Erasmus School of Law is for you. Within the Law & Markets team, you will spend 4.5 years researching the legal regulation of AI in the public sector. How do we protect fundamental rights when algorithms help decide on who receives public benefits, how to perform enforcement or how to enact environmental policy? What is the role of the state, and where is the limit of government power in a data-driven society? You will have plenty of space to choose your own research angle and work in a multidisci...
Read more

Ombudsman inquiry on Commission President’s text messages is a wake-up call for EU

Image
The European Ombudsman inquiry into the Commission’s handling of a request for text messages between its President and the CEO of a pharmaceutical company is a wake-up call for all EU institutions about ensuring accountability in an era of instant messaging. One year after the initial request by a journalist, the Commission has still not clarified whether messages reported to concern major vaccine procurement deals exist and whether the public is entitled to see them. The Ombudsman had asked the Commission, in a finding of maladministration in January, to conduct a more thorough search for the text messages. The Commission’s recent response failed to say whether it had looked directly and correctly for the text messages and if not, why not. While the response recognised that work-related text messages can be EU documents, it reiterated that the Commission’s internal policy is, in effect, not to register text messages. The Ombudsman has closed  the inquiry  and upheld...
Read more

Harassment During Job Interviews Under Cyprus Law

Image
By Giorgos Kazoleas, LL.M., Lawyer, Managing Partner at Legal Experts Cyprus Harassment or bullying during a job interview can now legally be considered workplace harassment. This is explicitly provided for in recent Cypriot legislation regarding workplace harassment, which widens the scope of application to include candidates for employment. The Legal Framework in Cyprus: Law 42(I)/2025 Law 42(I)/2025 (The Prevention and Combating of Violence and Harassment at Work Law), which came into force on April 11, 2025, explicitly extends protection against harassment and violence to the recruitment process and employment negotiations before a contract is signed. According to the interpretation of terms in Article 2 of the Law, the definition of an "employee" includes, among others, a person: "Whose employment relationship has not yet begun, in cases where the violation of the provisions of this Law has been committed during the recruitment process or at another stage of...
Read more

The Delivery Delay Clause in Residential Construction Contracts: Consumer Protection in Cyprus and Europe

Image
By Giorgos Kazoleas, LL.M., Lawyer, Managing Partner at Legal Experts Cyprus The purchase or construction of a new residence is one of the most significant financial and personal decisions a consumer can make. Residential construction contracts or agreements for the sale of property under construction are a crucial and defining element of the entire process, as certain terms they may contain can be detrimental to the buyer. One of the most critical aspects is the contractual delivery time of the project and the provision for delay, through the so-called delivery delay clause. The Delivery Delay Clause: Its Role and Legal Nature The delivery delay clause (also known as a penalty clause in the event of default) is a term usually included in the contract that specifies a predetermined compensation amount that the contractor or seller must pay to the buyer for every day, week, or month of delay beyond the agreed delivery date. The purpose of the clause is twofold: -Compensatory: ...
Read more

Gigantic fine for unfair practices imposed on Booking.com by the Competition Authority of Hungary

Image
One of the highest fines for violation of unfair competition law has been imposed (28/4/2020) on online hotel booking platform ‘’Booking.com’’ by the Hungarian Competition Authority. The amount of the fine (approximately EUR 6 million / HUF 2.5 billion) imposed by the Authority illustrates the seriousness of the Dutch company's violations. The Hungarian Competition Authority (GVH) imposed a fine of HUF 2.5 billion on the operator of the online booking portal booking.com, and at the same time banned the Dutch company from continuing its aggressive sales methods. According to the decision of the competition authority, Booking.com B.V. engaged in unfair commercial practices against consumers by, among other things, misleadingly advertising some of its accommodations with a free cancellation option and exerting undue psychological pressure on consumers to make early bookings. As a result of the Competition Authority’s competition supervision proceeding  initiated in 2018, the autho...
Read more

'Ne bis in idem' principle can preclude the arrest, within the Schengen Area and the European Union, of a person who is the subject of an Interpol notice (ECJ)

Image
ECJ - Judgment in Case C-505/19 WS v Bundesrepublik Deutschland (12.5.2021): The principle prohibiting the duplication of proceedings can preclude the arrest, within the Schengen Area and the European Union, of a person who is the subject of an Interpol notice. This is the case where the competent authorities are aware of a final judicial decision, taken in a State that is a party to the Schengen Agreement or a Member State, which establishes that that principle applies. In 2012, the International Criminal Police Organisation (Interpol) published, at the request of the United States and on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by the authorities of that country, a red notice in respect of WS, a German national, with a view to his potential extradition. Where a person who is the subject of such a notice is located in a State affiliated to Interpol, that State must, in principle, provisionally arrest that person or monitor or restrict his or her movements. However, even before that ...
Read more

Greek Administrative Court rules state liable for Covid-19 vaccine side effects due to "excessive sacrifice"

Image
Greece: The Administrative Court of First Instance of Athens, in its decision no. 4202/2025, has ruled that the Greek State is liable for damages sustained by an individual due to side effects following a preventive "COVID-19" vaccination. This landmark decision was issued in a compensation lawsuit filed against the Hellenic Republic. The Case: Seeking Compensation for Vaccine-Related Harm The lawsuit was brought by a plaintiff seeking compensation for material damage and moral harm (non-pecuniary damage), alleging that they suffered severe side effects after their preventive COVID-19 vaccination with a specific vaccine. The initial claim was for €461,835.26, but this amount was subsequently restricted during the proceedings. The plaintiff based their claim on two legal grounds: Article 105 of the Introductory Law of the Civil Code (EισNAK): This article concerns the State's liability for compensation arising from illegal acts or omissions of its organs in the exe...
Read more