Procedure for selecting the European Data Protection Supervisor and the Assistant Supervisor

22.1.2014

Question for written answer P-000567-14
to the Commission
Rule 117
Salvatore Iacolino (PPE)

On 31 July 2013, the Commission published a notice of competition with a view to selecting the new European Data Protection Supervisor and Assistant Supervisor.

Six months have now passed since the procedure was launched. Of the 70 applicants, five were selected for consideration by the Advisory Committee responsible for the appointment, but none of the five was deemed suitable, allegedly because of a ‘lack of political vision and managerial skills’. The Advisory Committee on the appointment also included a member from outside the institutions.

Having regard to the correspondence between the Chair of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, Lopez Aguilar, and Commissioner Šefčovič, the hearings of Commissioner Šefčovič and Data Protection Supervisor Hustinx in the Civil Liberties Committee in recent days, as well as the communication of 20 January 2014 from Secretary-General Catherine Day, can the Commission answer the following questions?

1. Does it intend to relaunch the procedure with the same or a different notice of competition, or with separate notices for the two posts, as would appear from the Secretary-General’s communication to be the case? At all events, how does the Commission intend to inform the European Parliament of its decisions?

2. Why has the assessment of candidates’ political awareness been entrusted to a body made up of technical experts, disregarding Parliament’s prerogatives?

3. What costs were borne by taxpayers in paying for a procedure which produced no concrete result?

4. How will the Commission guarantee the privacy of citizens with an institution which in the next few months may be incapable of carrying out its mandate fully?

OJ C 286, 27/08/2014