Peter Hustinx, the Dutch data protection commissioner, will be elected today as the new EU data protection commissioner.
The Conference of Presidents, composed of the heads of the Political Groups in the European Parliament, decided to back-down from their original idea to give the position to the Spanish magistrate Joaquín Bayo Delgado. He will now be appointed Assistant Commissioner. The decision will be made public today, after the Council has approved.
Back in May Bayo Delgado, backed by an informal coalition of Spanish MEPs, won a test vote in the European Parliament Interior Affairs committee. Civil liberties organisations responded with surprise because he was the only candidate on the list with no record of data protection or privacy advocacy at all.
On the contrary Hustinx is well known, has many contacts with the Commission in Brussels and is a regular visitor and contributor to any events on EU Data Protection. By many Brussels insiders he was therefore regarded as the 'natural candidate'.
(Contribution by Andreas Dietl, EDRI EU affairs director)