Summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the Recommendation for a Council Decision to authorise the Commission to open negotiations for the amendment of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax

(The full text of this Opinion can be found in English, French and German on the EDPS website www.edps.europa.eu)

(2022/C 260/03)

On 26 April 2022, the European Commission issued a Proposal for a Recommendation for a Council Decision to authorise the Commission to open negotiations for the amendment of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax (‘the Proposal’).

The objective of the Proposal is to amend the Agreement currently in place between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation (‘the Agreement’). The Agreement allows the EU Member States and Norway to cooperate to fight against VAT fraud and assist each other to recover claims in the field of VAT in a similar way as EU Member States do under Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 (1) and Council Directive 2010/24/EU (2). The amendment of the Agreement would allow administrative cooperation with Norway with new cooperation tools, similar to the ones introduced in Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 with Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1541 (3).

The Annex to the Proposal contains the negotiating directives for the amendment of the Agreement, which would cover administrative cooperation via the exchange of information by using other means than standard forms; administrative enquiries carried out jointly and Eurofisc follow-up actions, introduced by Regulation (EU) 2018/1541. The negotiating directives also indicate the need to replace the reference to the repealed Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council (4) by Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5) (‘the GDPR’).

The EDPS takes note of the data protection safeguards concerning the principle of purpose limitation and of storage limitation laid down in Article 55(5) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2018/1541, according to which cooperation between Norway and the EU Member States shall take place. However, the EDPS recommends including in the negotiating directives an explicit reference to these safeguards.

The EDPS takes note of the safeguards concerning the protection of personal data already contained in the Agreement. However, the EDPS recommends further substantial alignment of Article 6(7) of the Agreement with the provisions contained in Chapter V of the GDPR.

The EDPS also recommends inserting a reference to this consultation of the EDPS in a recital of the Proposal.

1. INTRODUCTION

1. On 26 April 2022, the European Commission issued a Proposal for a Recommendation for a Council Decision to authorise the Commission to open negotiations for the amendment of the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax ( 6 ) (‘the Proposal’).

2. The objective of the Proposal is to amend the Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, fight against fraud and recovery of claims in the area of value added tax (‘the Agreement’) ( 7 ) by including new tools that would allow for better cooperation and enhance the fight against fraud, thus bringing advantages to both parties to the Agreement (Norway and Member States) ( 8 )

3. The present Opinion of the EDPS is issued in response to a consultation by the European Commission of 28 April 2022, pursuant to Article 42(1) of EUDPR.

5. CONCLUSIONS

18. In light of the above, the EDPS makes the following recommendations: (1) including in the negotiating directives an explicit reference to the data protection safeguards concerning the principle of purpose limitation and of storage limitation laid down in Article 55(5) of Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 as amended by Regulation (EU) 2018/1541; (2) including in the negotiating directives a reference to the need to align the provisions in Article 6(7) of the Agreement to the relevant provisions contained in Chapter V of the GDPR; (3) inserting a reference to the EDPS consultation in a recital of the Proposal.

Brussels, 20 June 2022. Wojciech Rafał WIEWIÓROWSKI

(1) Council Regulation (EU) No 904/2010 of 7 October 2010 on administrative cooperation and combating fraud in the field of value added tax (OJ L 268, 12.10.2010, p. 1).

(2) Council Directive 2010/24/EU of 16 March 2010 concerning mutual assistance for the recovery of claims relating to taxes, duties and other measures (OJ L 84, 31.3.2010, p. 1).

(3) Council Regulation (EU) 2018/1541 of 2 October 2018 amending Regulations (EU) No 904/2010 and (EU) 2017/2454 as regards measures to strengthen administrative cooperation in the field of value added tax (OJ L 259, 16.10.2018, p. 1).

(4) 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 (OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31).

(5) Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation) (OJ L 119, 4.5.2016, p. 1).

(6) COM (2022) 166 final.

(7) Agreement between the European Union and the Kingdom of Norway on administrative cooperation, combating fraud and recovery of claims in the field of value added tax (OJ L 195, 1.8.2018, p. 3).

(8) COM (2022) 166 final, p. 2.