Hustinx new EU data protection commissioner

Peter Hustinx, the Dutch data protection commissioner, will be elected
today as the new EU data protection commissioner.

The Conference of Presidents, composed of the heads of the Political Groups
in the European Parliament, decided to back-down from their original idea
to give the position to the Spanish magistrate Joaquín Bayo Delgado. He
will now be appointed Assistant Commissioner. The decision will be made
public today, after the Council has approved.

Back in May Bayo Delgado, backed by an informal coalition of Spanish MEPs,
won a test vote in the European Parliament Interior Affairs committee.
Civil liberties organisations responded with surprise because he was the
only candidate on the list with no record of data protection or privacy
advocacy at all.

On the contrary Hustinx is well known, has many contacts with the
Commission in Brussels and is a regular visitor and contributor to any
events on EU Data Protection. By many Brussels insiders he was therefore
regarded as the ‘natural candidate’.

(Contribution by Andreas Dietl, EDRI EU affairs director)