The EDPS plays a specific role as the supervisory data protection authority of the EU institutions, bodies, offices and agencies (EUIs). In recent years, crucial issues related to the role of the state have emerged, and the importance data plays in this regard. Against this background, the EDPS wants to use its 20th anniversary as an opportunity to bring more prominently to the public debate questions about the role of a state in the times of ever-growing collection of information about citizens, be it by private or public entities, and the place of data protection in modern democracies.
The debate will touch upon the role of data protection, its possibilities and limitations, its successes and missed opportunities, in contributing to the development of the fundaments of democratic society. It will gather minds who - while sharing a broad commitment to the protection of humans’ privacy - can look critically at the meaning of fundamental rights to privacy and to data protection in modern reality. Participants will answer the following five key questions (panels’ abstracts at the same time) around which the conversations taking place at the Summit will be organised.
- What is ‘data protection’ protecting?
- Is data protection law suitable for public authorities?
- Zooming out onto democracy and rule of law. How to build a functioning democratic oversight?
- In the trap of reactiveness. Can data protection be in the driving seat?
- Fit for ‘44. How to turn wishes into proposals?