Answer given by Ms Jourová on behalf of the European Commission
28.2.2019
Commissioner Jourová has taken contact with Spanish Minister of Justice, Ms Dolores Delgado García, to clarify the content of the article 58 bis of the law mentioned by the Honourable Member.
She expressed the concern that, on the basis of this Article, political parties could obtain personal data and perform profiling of all citizens to know their political preferences, their willingness to change their political opinion, etc. This issue is especially relevant to practices observed in the Cambridge Analytica case.
The Commission is attaching the highest importance to secure free and fair elections. In this respect, also as a follow up to the Cambridge Analytica case, the Commission has proposed a series of measures to better protect our democratic processes from manipulation by third countries or private interests[1]. These measures include the guidance on the application of EU data protection law in an electoral context, which refers in particular to the challenges raised by micro-targeting methods [2].
On the basis of the replies given by Spanish authorities, the Commission will consider how to further proceed.