Commission dismantles data watchdog group

Group ‘compromised' by US interests; expert group met only once.
The European Commission has disbanded a group of experts that was supposed to review EU data protection legislation, following complaints in the French parliament that the body comprised people “representing American interests”.

The group of five experts, one of whom works for Google and another for Intel, was disbanded at the end of January – just over a month after the group first met – despite having been set up for a one-year renewable term. Alex Türk, a French senator and the chairman of data protection supervisors from the 27 member states, is understood to have complained about the group to Jacques Barrot, his compatriot, who is the European commissioner for justice, freedom and security.

French senate
Türk had raised the matter on 25 November in the French national assembly's European affairs committee and then raised it again in the French senate's equivalent committee last week (3 February). The senate committee was told that the group of experts was “composed of four-fifths of personalities representing American interests in order to reflect on the revision of the European directive of 1995 relating to the protection of personal data”, according to a report from the hearing on the French senate's website.
The committee proposed a resolution stating that it was “unacceptable” that four members of the group “are either from American companies or law firms whose principal establishment is in the US”.

Working language
The resolution also said that it was unacceptable that the working language of the group was English, as set down in its terms of reference.
Türk told the senate committee that he had spoken to Barrot about the group and he had admitted the “situation was abnormal”. Barrot had suggested forming a larger group of experts, but had yet to confirm if this could be done, Türk added. “Europeans must note that the gap is big between the American vision and the European vision,” Türk told the committee.
A spokesman for Barrot denied that any pressure was put on the commissioner to disband the group. He said that Barrot had wanted to broaden the consultation on the review of data protection laws beyond a small group of experts. “We were happy with passing on to the next level and a broader dimension was clearly seen. It's in the sense of having a broader approach,” he said. A letter dated 23 January from Barrot to Türk refers to the broader consultation and a series of conferences, adding that the expert group “will not last beyond the launch” of such a consultation.

Barrot's spokesman said that it was not unusual for an expert group set up by the Commission with a one-year mandate to be disbanded after one meeting.

‘No nationality issue'
The spokesman also denied the composition of the group and the nationality of the experts had any bearing on the decision to disband it. “You have to gather expertise in this globalised technical field and have people that can reflect and have knowledge of new technology,” he said.
The group's experts, who were not paid for their services, were selected after a tendering process and included: Peter Fleischer, global privacy counsel for Google; David Hoffman, director of security policy and global privacy officer for Intel; Henriette Tielemans a privacy lawyer with Covington and Burling, a US law firm; Christopher Kuner, a privacy lawyer with Hunton and Williams, a US law firm; and Jacob Kohnstamm, chairman of the Dutch data protection authority.

Information listing the members of the group and the text of the tendering process were taken off the Commission's website this week without any mention that the group had been disbanded.

Source: European Voice