29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/1

29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/2

1.

On 4 April 2012, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on simplifying the transfer of motor vehicles registered in another Member State within the single market (the Proposal) (1). On the same day, the Proposal was sent by the Commission to the EDPS for consultation.

2.

Before the adoption of the Proposal, the EDPS was given the opportunity to provide informal comments. Most of these comments have been taken into account in the Proposal. As a result, the data protections safeguards in the Proposal have been strengthened.

3.

The EDPS welcomes the fact that he is formally consulted by the Commission and that reference to the present consultation has been made in the preamble of the Proposal.

4.

The objective of the Proposal is to simplify the formalities and conditions for the registration of vehicles registered in another Member State. It is aimed at removing obstacles to the free movement of goods and at facilitating the exercise by citizens of their rights under EU law. The Proposal focuses only on vehicle re-registration modalities and not on the initial vehicle registration procedure.

5.

Motor vehicle registration constitutes the administrative authorisation for the entry of vehicles into service in road traffic, involving their identification and the issuing of a registration number. At the end of the registration procedure, Member States issue a registration certificate which certifies that the vehicle is registered in a Member State. There are many circumstances in which holders of a registration certificate need to re-register the vehicle with another Member State's vehicle registration authority. To this end, the Proposal will:

6.

The EDPS welcomes that most of his previous informal comments have been taken into account in the Proposal. In this Opinion, the EDPS will therefore only briefly describe the relevance of data protection in the context of vehicle re-registration. Then, he will provide a few further recommendations on specific data protection aspects that govern the exchanges of data amongst national motor vehicle registers.

30.

The EDPS welcomes that data protection requirements have been appropriately considered in the Proposal, and that several specific data protection safeguards have been expressly included in the Proposal, in particular in its Article 7. The EDPS also welcomes that the specific list of data that may be exchanged amongst vehicle registration authorities has been clearly defined in Annex I of the Proposal.

31.

The EDPS further recommends to:

29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/4

1.

On 21 March 2012, the Commission adopted:

2.

The two related proposals were sent to the EDPS for consultation on 26 March 2012.

3.

The EDPS welcomes the fact that the Commission consulted him formally after the proposals were adopted and that this Opinion is referred to in the preamble of the Posting of Workers proposal. However, he regrets that he was not given the opportunity to provide informal comments before the draft proposals were adopted.

4.

The objective of the Posting of Workers proposal is to improve, enhance and reinforce the way in which Directive 96/71/EC concerning the posting of workers in the framework of the provision of services (Posting of Workers Directive (3)) is implemented, applied and enforced in practice across the European Union. The proposal aims to achieve this by establishing a general common framework for better and more uniform implementation, application and enforcement of the Directive, including measures to prevent any circumvention or abuse of the rules (4).

5.

The objective of the Collective Action proposal is to clarify the general principles and applicable rules at EU level with respect to the exercise of the fundamental right to take collective action within the context of the freedom to provide services and the freedom of establishment (5).

6.

While it is not the main objective of either of the two proposals to process personal data, at least one of the proposals — the Posting of Workers proposal — requires the processing of a significant amount of personal data. As will be shown below, these personal data may relate to the posted workers as well as to individuals acting on behalf of the posting undertakings such as their corporate officers, management, company representatives, or employees. In addition, the posting undertakings themselves may also be natural persons. If so, their personal data may also be processed. Some of the data processed may be sensitive (6): in particular, data on suspected circumvention or abuse of the rules may be exchanged among competent authorities.

7.

From the data protection perspective, the three most relevant provisions of the Posting of Workers proposal are

8.

The processing of personal data in all three cases is foreseen to take place via the Internal Market Information system (IMI) (7).

9.

As to the Collective Action proposal, the alert mechanism foreseen in Article 4 appears to allow the exchange of personal data, possibly including sensitive data (information about participation in strikes or similar collective action (8)). However, as will be noted in Section 4 below, the exchange of personal data appears not to be the legislative intention and, therefore, any concerns can presumably be addressed by a simple clarification that no sensitive personal data shall be contained in these alerts.

32.

The EDPS welcomes that the Posting of Workers proposal addresses data protection concerns. The EDPS also welcomes the fact that the use of an existing information system, IMI, is proposed for the administrative cooperation, which already offers, at the practical level, a number of data protection safeguards, and for which specific safeguards are expected to be adopted soon under the IMI Regulation.

33.

To address any remaining data protection concerns, the EDPS provides the following recommendations.

34.

As a general comment, the EDPS recommends that the reference to the applicable data protection framework should be set forth in a substantive provision rather than in a recital and should be further nuanced by reference to ‘national rules which implement’ Directive 95/46/EC.

35.

On bilateral information exchanges under the Posting of Workers proposal (Article 6(2)), the EDPS recommends that the permissible purposes of information exchange should be more clearly specified in the proposal. In particular, the phrase ‘possible cases of unlawful transnational activities’ should be deleted and the provision should be redrafted to ensure that any exchange of personal data is only possible for the purposes of ‘investigation of any abuses of applicable rules on the posting of workers’ (or other necessary purposes clearly specified in the proposal).

36.

On access to registers of service providers by competent authorities of other Member States (Article 6(6)), the EDPS recommends that the proposal should more clearly specify what registers are actually concerned. This Article should not, in particular, be used as a legal basis to allow access to registers established in some Member States where posting undertakings need to declare, among other things, certain personal data relating to their posted employees.

37.

In addition, if and when interconnection of registers is planned as a common European project in this area as well, data protection safeguards must be carefully considered at the European level.

38.

With regard to the alert system on possible irregularities (Article 7(2)), the EDPS recommends that the proposal:

39.

On the Collective Action proposal, Article 4 should clarify that no sensitive personal data shall be contained in these alerts.

29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/7

29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/8

29.1.2013   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

C 27/9

1.

On 21 January 2013, the Commission received a notification of a proposed concentration pursuant to Article 4 of Council Regulation (EC) No 139/2004 (1) by which Triton Managers III Limited and TFF III Limited (together ‘Triton’, Jersey), indirectly via an acquisition vehicle Bodem Holding Finland Oy, acquire, within the meaning of Article 3(1)(b) of the Merger Regulation, control of the whole of Suomen Lähikauppa Oy (‘Suomen Lähikauppa’, Finland) by way of purchase of shares.

2.

The business activities of the undertakings concerned are:

3.

On preliminary examination, the Commission finds that the notified transaction could fall within the scope the EC Merger Regulation. However, the final decision on this point is reserved.

4.

The Commission invites interested third parties to submit their possible observations on the proposed operation to the Commission.

Observations must reach the Commission not later than 10 days following the date of this publication. Observations can be sent to the Commission by fax (+32 22964301), by e-mail to COMP-MERGER-REGISTRY@ec.europa.eu or by post, under reference number COMP/M.6847 — Triton/Suomen Lähikauppa, to the following address: