Council of Europe
Consultative Committee of the Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (T-PD), also known as Convention no. 108.
Convention no. 108 on the protection of individuals with regard to the automatic processing of personal data was signed at the level of the Council of Europe on the 28th January 1981 and represents one of the first legal instruments adopted at international level in the field of the protection of personal data.
The Consultative Committee – T-PD - was established on the basis of article 20 paragraph (4) of Convention 108 and is made up of representatives of all Council of Europe member states, signatories of the Convention. The Committee is led by a President and two vice-presidents.
The Committee exercises the attributions provided by articles 19 and 20 of Convention 108. It mainly issues draft legal instruments in view of their adoption by the Committee of Ministers and also issues opinions and reports.
The Committee has a Bureau in charge of the preparation of the reunions of the T-PD.
Romania has ratified the Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data through Law no. 682/2001. Moreover, through Law no. 55/2005 our country has also ratified the Additional Protocol to the Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data, regarding supervisory authorities and trans-border data flows.
The reunions of the Committee may also be attended by representatives of Council of Europe member states that haven't ratified Convention no.108. The meetings are usually held at the premises of the Council of Europe in Strasbourg.
Romania participates at the Committee's reunions through representatives of the National Supervisory Authority for Personal Data Processing and has the right to vote.
Convention 108 is currently going through a process of modernisation and adaptation to the challenges on data protection posed by the new technologies in the communications field. The proposal of modernisation of the Convention was initiated by the T-PD Consultative Committee.
The review process will follow the two main objectives, namely to meet the challenges to privacy as a result of the use of new technologies in the communications domain and to emphasize the importance of the follow-up mechanism with regards to the implementation of the principles laid down by Convention 108.
Thus, in October 2011 the discussions on the modernization of Convention 108 have begun, the Consultative Committee (T-PD) adopting, at the technical level of the T-PD in 2012, a text of the protocol of review. The Committee of Ministers decided to establish an ad hoc Committee on the protection of data composed of representatives of the Member States of the Council of Europe with a mission to complete the modernisation of the Convention 108 through formal negotiation of the text of the Protocol of amendment.
The process of modernisation of Convention 108 has as purposefulness its transformation into an international legal instrument with a universal value applicable also to the States outside the Council of Europe. Currently, a process of reforming the legal framework concerning the protection of personal data at EU level started in 2012 is taking place, which intends to adopt a regulation applicable in the Member State and that will replace the current Directive 95/46/EC and a directive regulating the protection of personal data in criminal matters.
Whereas the majority of the States parties to the Convention 108 are members of both the EU and the Council of Europe, it is desired to have amendments compatible between the legal instruments of these two international organizations.
The Proposals for modernisations are available at the following address:
Handbook on European data protection law
http://fra.europa.eu/en/publication/2014/handbook-european-data-protection-law
