Executive summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on simplifying the transfer of motor vehicles registered in another Member State within the single market
Date: 2013-01-29
Institutions: European Data Protection Supervisor
Subjects: administrative formalities, data protection, data transmission, exchange of information, free movement of goods, motor vehicle, single market, technical barriers to trade, vehicle documents, vehicle registration








C_2013027EN.01000201.xml










29.1.2013   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 27/2





Executive summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on simplifying the transfer of motor vehicles registered in another Member State within the single market
(The full text of this Opinion can be found in English, French and German on the EDPS website http://www.edps.europa.eu)
2013/C 27/02
I.   Introduction

I.1.   Consultation of the EDPS







1.


On 4 April 2012, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council on simplifying the transfer of motor vehicles registered in another Member State within the single market (the Proposal) (1). On the same day, the Proposal was sent by the Commission to the EDPS for consultation.










2.


Before the adoption of the Proposal, the EDPS was given the opportunity to provide informal comments. Most of these comments have been taken into account in the Proposal. As a result, the data protections safeguards in the Proposal have been strengthened.










3.


The EDPS welcomes the fact that he is formally consulted by the Commission and that reference to the present consultation has been made in the preamble of the Proposal.




I.2.   Objective and scope of the Proposal







4.


The objective of the Proposal is to simplify the formalities and conditions for the registration of vehicles registered in another Member State. It is aimed at removing obstacles to the free movement of goods and at facilitating the exercise by citizens of their rights under EU law. The Proposal focuses only on vehicle re-registration modalities and not on the initial vehicle registration procedure.










5.


Motor vehicle registration constitutes the administrative authorisation for the entry of vehicles into service in road traffic, involving their identification and the issuing of a registration number. At the end of the registration procedure, Member States issue a registration certificate which certifies that the vehicle is registered in a Member State. There are many circumstances in which holders of a registration certificate need to re-register the vehicle with another Member State's vehicle registration authority. To this end, the Proposal will:






—


clarify in which Member State a motor vehicle transferred between Member States should be registered,










—


reduce the time of re-registration procedures, and










—


provide for a simplified registration procedure that includes the recognition of documents and roadworthiness tests issued in another Member State and the facilitation of data exchange between national registration authorities.








I.3.   Scope of EDPS comments







6.


The EDPS welcomes that most of his previous informal comments have been taken into account in the Proposal. In this Opinion, the EDPS will therefore only briefly describe the relevance of data protection in the context of vehicle re-registration. Then, he will provide a few further recommendations on specific data protection aspects that govern the exchanges of data amongst national motor vehicle registers.




III.   Conclusion







30.


The EDPS welcomes that data protection requirements have been appropriately considered in the Proposal, and that several specific data protection safeguards have been expressly included in the Proposal, in particular in its Article 7. The EDPS also welcomes that the specific list of data that may be exchanged amongst vehicle registration authorities has been clearly defined in Annex I of the Proposal.










31.


The EDPS further recommends to:






—


specify in Annex I the ‘reasons for the destruction’ in predefined fields to choose from,










—


make clear in Article 4(3) that the obligation for a motor vehicle registration authority to gather the information in Annex I from another competent authority and to transfer the data to its own register can only apply to data that the recipient competent authority would be authorised to process pursuant to EU law and/or its national law,










—


add in Article 9 that vehicle registration authorities should make easily accessible to the public the rules governing the processing of data in the context of the re-registration of vehicles, which should include information on time limits for retention as well as the necessary information foreseen in Articles 10 and 11 of Directive 95/46/EC,










—


clarify in the Proposal what is the software application mentioned in Annex II which will be used for the electronic exchanges of data, and what would be the role of the Commission, if any, in facilitating the interoperability between national registers,










—


ensure that, if data are exchanged amongst national vehicle registration authorities through an existing pan-European infrastructure, they are appropriately segregated from other data that may be exchanged therein,










—


add in Article 7(4) that the Commission should evaluate regularly the adequacy of the security measures, taking into account technological developments and the evolution of risks and that it should update the security measures where necessary.









Done at Brussels, 9 July 2012.

Giovanni BUTTARELLI

Assistant European Data Protection Supervisor





(1)  COM(2012) 164 final.