NGOs address President of the European Commission
In their letter sent to the President of the European Commission, the Eötvös Károly Institute, the HHC and the HCLU claim that Hungarian legal provisions on the Data Protection Commissioner of Hungary violate relevant EU directives. The NGOs suggest the Commission to initiate a proceeding against Hungary.
The three Hungarian NGOs clarify an outstanding problem arising from an Act of the Parliament of Hungary, namely the independence of the Data Protection Commissioner. In their view the new Act No CXII of 2011 on informational self-determination and freedom of information fails to satisfy the fundamental requirement of independence of the national authority supervising the processing of personal data under the directive 95/46/EC. According to this Act, the current data protection commissioner will be replaced on 1 January, 2012, years before the end of the fixed six-year term. The NGOs believe that the Hungarian Republic is failing to fulfil its obligations under EU law, therefore they suggest the Commission to initiate a proceeding against Hungary for this failure.
The letter in English is available here.