It was a close race: The EU Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee (LIBE) nominated Bruno Gencarelli for the role of European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) on Thursday after hearing four candidates in a secret ballot. Chosen as the preferred candidate. , The current head of international data flows and data protection in the Justice and Consumer Directorate-General of the EU Commission received 32 votes. Incumbent Wojciech Wiworowski, who has repeatedly stuck his finger in the wound when it comes to protecting privacy in the community over the past five years, was only able to convince 26 MPs.
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Biden orders encryption of email, DNS and BGPIn the middle is François Pellegrini, former vice-president of the French data protection authority CNIL, is with 30 votesEleven delegates spoke in favor of Anna Polyu, Data Protection Officer of the EU Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN). The LIBE Committee still needs to agree on the appointment with the Council of Ministers. Vivarowski and Gencarelli were initially considered the most promising candidates.
Wiworowski: “Microsoft 365 is illegal for executives”
Wiworowski recently made headlines with his tough stance in the controversy over the use of Microsoft 365 by the Commission and its subordinate officials. They classified the use of cloud-based office packages as illegal in light of the “Schrems II judgment” of the European Court of Justice and recently called on the Brussels Government Institute to immediately suspend all resulting data flows to third countries. Gencarelli is likely to be less critical of his current employer.
Wiworowski defended the principle of data minimization even in the age of artificial intelligence (AI) and criticized serious shortcomings in the chat controls employed. Also in December he rebuked the Commission for targeting advertising using particularly sensitive personal data for the controversial surveillance tool. In 2020, the Poland native complained that Europol investigators had overstepped their authority and acted unlawfully by collecting and analyzing volumes of data that were no longer manageable. In 2022 he sued the EU Police Authority over its license for mass surveillance and has not shied away from legal disputes.
The left-liberal camp was in favor of Pellegrini.
Wiworowski recently faced less trouble in his own office. According to reports, employees felt dejected. MPs from across the liberal and left spectrum were also surprised that he was less committed to potentially illegitimate surveillance on some issues, such as offering his support on the new agreement on the transfer of passenger data between the EU and Canada. A range of factions, from the liberal Renew faction to the Greens to the left, ultimately supported Pellegrini, whose reputation as an outspoken fundamental rights advocate at the CNIL preceded him. He was also able to earn points with this group as a computer scientist.
The European People’s Party (EPP) group, which includes the CDU and CSU, was in favor of Gencarelli, who led negotiations on behalf of the Commission regarding the controversial successor agreement to the EU-US data protection shield. The Conservatives were obviously followed by MPs who were further to the right. Gencarelli promised In response to MPs’ questions “Further development of a concrete and solution-oriented approach” to data security. Their position on data retention? Unclear: He wants to responsibly contribute to the EU’s evolving legislative agenda such as data protection-compliant solutions for “access to and storage of data by law enforcement authorities”.
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