EU Council chooses Wiewiórowski over Gencarelli for European privacy guarantor role

Brussels – Bruno Gencarelli‘s road to the helm of the European Data Protection Authority is uphill. After being selected by the European Parliament’s Civil Liberties Committee, the Italian candidate did not receive the same approval in the Council. Here, the representatives of the member states (COREPER) backed the candidacy of Wojciech Wiewiórowski, outgoing European guarantor. Among the twenty-seven ambassadors, Gencarelli was the second most voted for.

The vote of the representatives of the EU Member States precedes the inter-institutional negotiation with Parliament, which will now have to produce a political agreement. For the Council, the future trio of Presidency (Denmark, Cyprus, and Ireland) will lead the negotiations. It is also a question of practicality: the Council’s pick is Polish, and Poland currently holds the rotating presidency of the EU Council.

The European Data Protection Supervisor was established in 2004 to verify that EU institutions and bodies respect the privacy rights of EU citizens. In the context of its advisory role, the EDPS also intervenes in cases before the European Court of Justice that are relevant to its tasks. Before Wiewiórowski, Giovanni Buttarelli (2014-2019) held the role of Supervisor, and before then, Peter Hustinx from the Netherlands (2004-2014).