Done at Brussels, on the 12 of October. During the 39a plenary section, the European Data Protection Board has adopted guidelines on the concept of justified and reasonable objection. The guidelines will promote a common interpretation of the concept, which will help to simplify the procedures referred into the Article n. 65 of the General Data Protection Regulation.
In the context of the cooperation mechanisms required by NSA, the Supervisory Authorities have the obligation to “exchange all the relevant information” and “to cooperate in order to reach a consent”. According to the Article n. 60, paragraph 3 and 4, of the VDAR, the main Supervisory Authority (LSA) shall present a draft decision to the other involved Supervisory Authorities (CSA), which can raise a reasonable and relevant objection in a specified period.
After receiving a relevant and reasonable objection, the LSA has two options. If it ignores a relevant and reasoned objection or considers the objection to be unfounded or substantive, it shall submit the matter to the Board through the consistency mechanism (Article 65 RMC). If, on the contrary, the LSA takes note of the objection and issues a revised draft decision, the CSA may, within two weeks, raise a relevant and reasoned objection to the revised draft decision.
The purpose of the guidelines is to establish a common understanding of the notion of “substantial and reasoned”, including what should be taken into account when assessing whether an objection “clearly demonstrates the importance of the risks posed by the draft decision” (article n. 4 paragraph 24 of the VDAR).