Common agricultural policy (CAP): financing, management and monitoring 2014-2020

Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS).

On 25 September 2012, the Commission adopted the Amendment to the Commission proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on the financing, management and monitoring of the common agricultural policy. The Amendment to the Commission proposal was sent to the EDPS for consultation. It adds a new chapter on transparency.

The EDPS welcomes the Commission’s effort in striking a balance between the principle of transparency and the beneficiaries' rights to privacy and personal data protection. However, he recommends the following:

• applying the exemption from publication for beneficiaries below the threshold only to natural persons;
• a better justification as to why other less intrusive measures would not fulfil the purpose of transparency and why other ways of publication have been considered less appropriate;
• including an additional provision to ensure that in case of small communities only aggregated data are published;
• justifying in the Preamble the duration chosen for the publication of the data;
• complement the information to be provided to data subjects.