POLAND—Polish DPA to improve institutional cooperation regarding privacy issues

At the end of March 2011, the Polish Data Protection Authority (DPA) Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data Mr. Wojciech Rafa? Wiewiórowski launched a new initiative to improve cooperation at an institutional level between the regulatory organs regarding privacy issues in Poland.

The DPA invited the Human Rights Ombudsman (RzecznikPrawObywatelskich), the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection (Urz?dOchronyKonkurencji i Konsumentów), the Office of Electronic Communications (Urz?dKomunikacjiElektornicznej) and the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KomisjaNadzoruFinansowego) to share their experience in the scope of data protection practices.

During the meeting, the parties identified areas in which their powers overlap or are complementary.

The participants in the meeting consented to the launch of a forum for exchanging information and decided to establish a panel of representatives—including a representative of the DPA—with the aim of keeping each other informed about their work on privacy and data protection issues.

To that end, the regulators decided to cooperate and share information related to involvement in legislative works that may be of interest to the others; important court proceedings and judgments launched by a given regulator or in which a regulator participated; international cooperation and, in particular, planned legislative amendments to existing European and international law; planned actions and works of the regulators during the six-month period when Poland will hold the presidency of the Council of the European Union, which begins on July 1.

The DPA’s efforts may positively impact the lawmaking process and application of privacy and data protection law in Poland. This may lead to a better understanding among the various regulatory organs of privacy and data protection-related issues, which is particularly important for entrepreneurs conducting their business in Poland. It will be interesting to see the effects of such cooperation.