Statement of coalition monitoring national DPA elections

The Helsinki Foundation for Human Rights, Panoptykon Foundation and the Institute for Law and Society INPRIS would like to express their concerns regarding the course of elections of the Inspector General for the Protection of Personal Data (IGPPD), Poland’s national data protection authority.

From December 2014 onwards, the organisations have been monitoring the IGPPD elections. In early January 2015, the Chancellery of the Sejm confirmed that only one candidate for this post had been presented. The person in question is Mirosław Wróblewski, a legal counsellor nominated by the Parliamentary grouping of the Civic Platform.

On 26 January the media reported that the ruling party’s deputies had withdrawn their support for Mr Wróblewski. The party leaders have provided no justification for their decision.

“The coalition of organisations monitoring the IGPPD elections wishes to express its concern over the lack of transparency in the candidate nomination process. An unjustified withdrawal of support for the candidate, a person who satisfies all the formal and substantive statutory criteria, may suggest that lawmakers have approached this crucial decision-making process affecting civic rights and freedoms in an irresponsible or unprepared way. Our concern is all the more considerable since deputies withdrew their support even before a public hearing or any parliamentary discussion could have taken place”, reads organisations’ statement.

The signatories of the statement call on policy makers to treat the IGPPD elections very seriously and in a responsible manner. “The prolonged vacancy for the post of the IGPPD negatively affects the functioning of the body, which is of crucial importance for the protection of civic rights and freedoms”, the statement continues.