The @EUombudsman's letter to @vonderleyen today re our @ICCLtweet complaint that the Commission failed to monitor the application of the GDPR. @DReynders @EUOmbudsmanEOR pic.twitter.com/oDPLzefFYB

— Johnny Ryan (@johnnyryan) February 10, 2022

THE EUROPEAN OMBUDSMAN has opened an inquiry into whether the European Commission is properly monitoring whether GDPR laws are being applied correctly in Ireland.

Ombudsman Emily O’Reilly wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen today to notify her of the inquiry in relation to this “important legislation” on data transparency, which forces companies to ask for people for their permission to gather and store their data.

The Ombudsman said she had launched the inquiry on foot of a complaint from the Irish Council of Civil Liberties (ICCL).

In her letter to the Commission, the Ombudsman stated that the inquiry is about “whether the Commission has taken adequate steps to collect sufficient information about the facts” on the application of GDPR in Ireland.

The Commission was told that public bodies and civil society organisations report that the application of GDPR is “inadequate”, and states that the Commission has recently told the ICCL that there is “no evidence of this”.

“I therefore consider it appropriate to ask the Commission to provide a detailed and comprehensive account of the information that it has so far collected to inform itself as to whether the GDPR is applied in all respects in Ireland.”

As part of this, the Ombudsman asked that the Commission include the sources from which it gathers information on GDPR application in Ireland.

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This needs to be done by 15 May this year. 

The Ombudsman clarified in the letter that the inquiry would not investigate whether the European Commission is doing enough to ensure that the GDPR is applied – it is focused on how it gathers information on whether GDPR is applied correctly in Ireland.