Recommendation for a COUNCIL DECISION on the vote to be taken by Member States within the competent bodies of the Council of Europe, on behalf of the European Community, in favour of adopting the draft Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes, and of authorising the publication of its Explanatory Memorandum

(presented by the Commission)

1. In its Decision adopted on 6 July 1998, the Council of the European Union authorised the Commission, on the latter's recommendation, to negotiate within the competent bodies of the Council of Europe the Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes, on behalf of the European Community and within its competence. The Commission was entrusted with the task of conducting the negotiations in consultation with the specialist Council Working Party.

2. The Council Decision was accompanied by negotiating directives designed to ensure that the said Recommendation of the Council of Europe was compatible with Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data [1]. In this connection, the Council had asked the Commission to pay particular attention to the provisions set out in the text concerning the special protection of sensitive data, the provision of information to the person affected by the data processing, the appropriate guarantees, the right of access by the person concerned to the data relating to him or her, and automated individual decisions

[1] OJ L 281 of 23.11.1995, p. 31

3. The negotiations embarked upon took place within the Project Group on Data Protection (CJ-PD) of the Council of Europe. The Recommendation and its Explanatory Memorandum take into account the Community positions presented by the Commission following coordination meetings within the Council of the European Union. As a result, the delegations of the European Union's Member States voted in favour of these texts at the meeting of the CJ-PD from 9 to 13 October 2000, where they were, moreover, adopted unanimously.

4. At its meeting on 31 May 2001, the Council of Europe's European Committee on Legal Cooperation (CD-CJ) unanimously approved the draft Recommendation and its Explanatory Memorandum.

5. The text of the draft Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes, and its Explanatory Memorandum, are annexed to this Recommendation.

6. The Commission considers that the draft Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes meets the negotiating directives laid down by the Council.

7. The draft Recommendation and its Explanatory Memorandum will be submitted shortly to the Council of Europe's Committee of Ministers for examination. The Committee has been asked to adopt the draft Recommendation and authorise the publication of the Explanatory Memorandum.

8. To conclude, the Commission recommends that the Council decide that, as the Commission cannot express a Community vote within the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, and in view of the discipline which must be observed in an area under Community jurisdiction, the Member States will vote unanimously on behalf of the European Community in favour of adopting the draft Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes, and of authorising the publication of its Explanatory Memorandum, as finalised in the above-mentioned document adopted by the European Committee on Legal Cooperation.

ANNEX

Draft Recommendation on the protection of personal data collected and processed for insurance purposes

and Explanatory Memorandum

(only available in the official languages of the Council of Europe: English and French)

(COMMISSION STAFF WORKING PAPER : SEC(2002)273)