On February 27, 2014, Chairwoman of the French Data Protection Authority (the “CNIL”) Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin was elected Chairwoman of the Article 29 Working Party effective immediately. Ms. Falque-Pierrotin succeeds Jacob Kohnstamm, Chairman of the Dutch Data Protection Authority, who chaired the Article 29 Working Party for four years. The Working Party also elected two new Vice-Chairs: Wojciech Rafal Wiewiórowski of the Polish Data Protection Authority, and Gérard Lommel of the Luxembourg Data Protection Authority.
The Article 29 Working Party is composed of representatives from the EU Member States’ data protection authorities, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Commission. The Working Party elects its Chairs and Vice-Chairs for two year terms of office, which are renewable.
The CNIL announced that, under the presidency of Ms. Falque-Pierrotin, the Working Party will face two key challenges: (1) preparing the transition to the new governance provided for by the proposed General Data Protection Regulation, and (2) developing cooperation between data protection authorities on an international level.