Author: Stephanie Schiedermair
- The Chair shall have the following tasks:
(a) to convene the meetings of the Board and prepare its agenda;
(b) to notify decisions adopted by the Board pursuant to Art. 65 to the lead supervisory authority and the supervisory authorities concerned;
(c) to ensure the timely performance of the tasks of the Board, in particular in relation to the consistency mechanism referred to in Art. 63.
- The Board shall lay down the allocation of tasks between the Chair and the deputy chairs in its rules of procedure.
I. Introduction
Art. 74 GDPR is concerned with the tasks of the Chair, which seem to promote effectiveness of the EDPB when undertaking its activities. As the analysis will show, the EDPB appears stronger compared to the Art. 29 WP (in terms of their tasks).
II. Legal background
Art. 29 para. 7 DPD stipulated that the Art. 29 WP must take into account elements put on its agenda by its Chair ‘either on his own initiative or at the request of a representative of the supervisory authorities or at the Commission’s request’. Aside from this rather brief reference, the tasks of the Chair of the Art. 29 WP were nowhere expressly enlisted.
III. Analysis
The tasks of the Chair are on the one hand of an administrative nature. By way of example, the Chair is responsible for convening the meetings of the Board, preparing the agenda and notifying the lead SA and the SAs concerned of the decisions adopted by the Board as part of the dispute resolution procedure pursuant to Art. 65 GDPR. The Chair is also, however, responsible for ensuring the timely performance of the tasks of the Board. This applies, in particular, to tasks in relation to the consistency mechanism. The precise allocation of tasks between the Chair and the deputy chairs is set out in the rules of procedure of the EDPB.
More concretely, Art. 7 para. 2 of the EDPB’s rules of procedure (entitled ‘Duties of the Chair and deputy chairs’) imposes on the Chair an obligation to communicate to the EDPB a proposal on the allocation of tasks among the Chair and the deputy chairs. The Chair can also grant deputy chairs competence for signing documents. It is noted that Art. 7 para. 1 of the above rules of procedure provides for further tasks (additional to these of Art. 74 GDPR): the duty of representation of the EDPB (Art. 68 para. 2 GDPR); the obligation to ‘act according to a mandate of the Board’ and the right to ‘designate a deputy chair, any member of a supervisory authority or a member of the secretariat to represent the Board externally on their behalf’; and the duty of information relating to, among others, scheduled external engagements and contacts.
It follows that the tasks of the Chair, primarily related to managing and organising the work of the EDPB, appear more powerful than the Art. 29 WP’s Chair’s tasks which had solely been connected with the Art. 29 WP’s agenda-making. That the EDPB’s Chair is in a more powerful position can also be demonstrated by linkages that may be drawn between Art. 74 and other (consistency-mechanism-related) provisions of the GDPR; to name but a few, Art. 64 para. 5 and Art. 65 para. 5 on sending communications, Art. 64 para. 7 on receiving communications or Art. 64 para. 3 on offering the possibility to object to draft decisions.