Last week the Schengen Evaluation Working Party which assembled in Brussels and consists of representatives of all the member states of the European Union and representatives of Norway, Switzerland and Iceland heard a report of the expert group on the level of the personal data protection in Estonia and approved the same.
To assess the data protection level, on 20-21 March the assessment mission which consisted of experts from eight countries and the European Commission visited the Ministry of Justice and the Data Protection Inspectorate. According to Eneken Tikk, Adviser of the Public Law Division, Ministry of Justice, questions were also posed to representatives of other ministries and executive agencies.
“Thanks to the good result of the data protection assessment the probability of Estonia’s accession to Schengen has considerably increased as most of the Schengen cooperation consists mainly in cross-border information exchange. Information exchange, in turn, is performed in accordance with the legislation applicable to data protection in Estonia,” said Tikk.
According to Tikk, in order to accede to Schengen it is important that the independence of data protection supervisory agencies and the awareness level of personal data processors in the Schengen information system be ensured. “The laws applicable in Estonia and the opportunities of the data subject for exercising his or her rights were also assessed,” said Eneken Tikk.
She added that in September this year experts will come to Estonia to assess whether we are ready to commence using the Schengen Information System.
