We are pleased to share a guest post by dr. Ákos Süle – managing partner of Süle Law Firm – who attended the latest conference of the Hungarian Data Protection Commissioner on 28 September 2011.
On 28 September 2011 we again celebrated the international Right to Information Day which is certainly supposed to be a joyful day and event for all data protection enthusiasts. This year however, the big Day was a little bit special since the related conference held by the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information (in the following: Commissioner) turned out to be the last one. As some of you already know, the Commissioner and his office will cease to exist as of 31 December 2011 and a new, probably less independent office will try to replace his duties, without the involvement of the current Commissioner, dr. András Jóri.
The all-day event was excellently organized and more than 150 people registered to attend. Both the speakers and the audience seemed to be in a good mood, so the gathering rather resembled a cheerful funeral with outstanding key speakers and speeches.
After the opening speech of dr. Jóri, dr. András Jakab (Schumpeter Fellow – Max-Planck-Institut für ausländisches öffentliches Recht und Völkerrecht, Germany) and dr. Pál Sonnevend (Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary) defined and analyzed the Hungarian Parliamentary Commissioner and other independent organizations from a constitutional law and constitutional historical aspect.
After that, all the past and present commissioners (dr. László Majtényi, dr. Attila Péterfalvi and dr. András Jóri) held speeches and rated their own offices. They seemed to agree that the quite quick shutting down of the Commissioner probably violates EU law. On the other side they seemed also to agree that this is not an end to data protection and freedom of information in Hungary but it should be rather seen as a step backwards (dr. Majtényi) with some “phantom menace above Mordor” (dr. Majtényi). Dr. Péterfalvi emphasized the human rights aspects of the data protection and of the freedom of information. Dr. Jóri made also some remarks on the new Hungarian act (he welcomed the new authority’s capacity to impose a fine and that it will have a technically independent office while he criticized the law regarding the “data protection audit” and that the new authority will not be entitled to consult the Constitutional Court of Hungary.)
The speeches were followed by a lively discussion with dr. Majtényi, dr. Jóri and dr. Nóra Forgách.
After the cold buffet, hosted by the Commissioner, the father of the Hungarian data protection law, dr. Könyves Tóth Pál held a very informative, retrospective presentation on the first steps of Hungarian data protection law in the 80-ies. He guided us through the more than one decade long process of accepting the first data protection act which was apparently not an easy task in the communist regime before 1989. He was followed by dr. Iván Székely (OSA, BME) who emphasized the need for the new authority to catch up with the technical improvements of our age.
After that, dr. Ádám Földes (Amnesty International, Hungary) noted in his presentation that in his view the new authority to be launched in January 2012 will not be able to function as an independent body, since its leader may be re-appointed which could lead to special handling of some delicate governmental cases.
Following that, Mr. Charles D. Raab (University of Edinburgh) held a presentation about the roles of data protection authorities related to protect information privacy and called to consider the way in which their activities involved co-operative relationships internationally. In his presentation he thoroughly examined the Commission v. Germany case on the independence of national supervisory authorities (ECJ C-518/07 – 2010) and also the Austrian situation.
Ms. Sarah Holsen (research associate at IDHEAP, Switzerland) has presented the differences between the German, Indian, Scottish and Swedish models of access to information oversight bodies and measured their independence both in formal and informal aspects.
Ms. Kristina Irion (Central European University, Department of Public Policy, Hungary) has also examined the above case against Germany and the Indireg 2010/ 11 EU Study in which she takes an active part. She also presented the country report on Hungary by the European Privacy and Human Rights (EPHR) project.
