Summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the proposal for a Council Regulation in matters of parenthood 2023/C 60/13 (The full text of this Opinion can be found in English, French and German on the EDPS website https://edps.europa.eu)
Date: 2023-02-17
Institutions: European Data Protection Supervisor
Subjects: child protection, cross-border cooperation, data protection, family law, family relationship, judicial cooperation in civil matters in the EU, jurisdiction, personal data, protection of privacy, ruling








C_2023060EN.01002001.xml










17.2.2023   


EN


Official Journal of the European Union


C 60/20






Summary of the Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the proposal for a Council Regulation in matters of parenthood
(2023/C 60/13)


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


On 7 December 2022, the European Commission issued a proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood.
The objective of the proposal is to lay down common rules on jurisdiction and applicable law for the establishment of parenthood in a Member State in cross-border situations; common rules for the recognition or, as the case may be, acceptance in a Member State of court decisions on parenthood given, and authentic instruments on parenthood drawn up or registered, in another Member State; and create a European Certificate of Parenthood.
The EDPS welcomes the clear references made to the application of the GDPR (1), the EUDPR (2) and the e-Privacy Directive (3) as well as the determination of the controllership regarding the processing of personal data for the purposes of the proposal and the clarification provided regarding the processing of special categories of personal data.
1.   INTRODUCTION









1.


On 7 December 2022, the European Commission issued a proposal for a Council Regulation on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition of decisions and acceptance of authentic instruments in matters of parenthood and on the creation of a European Certificate of Parenthood (‘the proposal’) (4).












2.


The objective of the proposal is to ‘lay down common rules on jurisdiction and applicable law for the establishment of parenthood in a Member State in cross-border situations; common rules for the recognition or, as the case may be, acceptance in a Member State of court decisions on parenthood given, and authentic instruments on parenthood drawn up or registered, in another Member State’ and to create a European Certificate of Parenthood (5).












3.


This initiative was identified as a key action in the EU Strategy on the rights of the child (6) and in the EU LGBTIQ Equality Strategy (7).












4.


The present Opinion of the EDPS is issued in response to a consultation by the European Commission of 12 December 2022, pursuant to Article 42(1) EUDPR. The EDPS welcomes the reference to this consultation in recital 96 of the proposal. In this regard, the EDPS also positively notes that he was already previously informally consulted pursuant to recital 60 EUDPR.




3.   CONCLUSIONS









9.


In light of the above, the EDPS has no further comments on the proposal.





Brussels, 26 January 2023.

Wojciech Rafał WIEWIÓROWSKI




(1)  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).

(2)  Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC (OJ L 295, 21.11.2018, p. 39).

(3)  Directive 2002/58/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 12 July 2002 concerning the processing of personal data and the protection of privacy in the electronic communications sector (Directive on privacy and electronic communications) (OJ L 201, 31.7.2002, p. 37).

(4)  COM(2022) 695 final.

(5)  Article 1.

(6)  EU Strategy on the rights of the child, COM(2021) 142 final.

(7)  Union of Equality: LGBTIQ Equality Strategy 2020-2025, COM(2020) 698 final. See explanatory memorandum, p. 2.