The European Commission announced today that it will launch accelerated infringement proceedings against Hungary, inter alia, due to the violation of independence of its data protection authority, since the new data protection legislation of Hungary prematurely terminated the Data Protection Commissioner’s term which should have originally ended only in 2014.

The respective press release is available here: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/12/24&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Notably, Data Protection Commissioner András Jóri had heavy conflicts with Government officials, as well as with the chief whip of the Government Party FIDESZ. For instance, the Commissioner objected data protection violations relating to the political direct marketing campaign of the Government, as well as the illegal data processing activity of the city of Hódmezővásárhely relating to certain social allowances. In connection with the adoption of the new Constitution, the Government believed that the creation of a new data protection authority would justify an early termination of the Commissioner’s position and appointment of a new data protection supervisor. Practically, the EU Commission confirmed that this approach of the Government, including the potential political influence over this position, such as the possibility to dismiss the DPA’s President on the basis of arbitrary grounds, infringes the requirement for independence of the DPA articulated by the EU Data Protection Directive.

The EU Commission has also released a FAQ relating to infringement procedures which is available here: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/12/12&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

The Hungairan Government recently announced that it would initiate the change of the recently adopted laws in order to comply with the requirements of EU legislation.