Comments of the Polish SA on the Act on enforcement of judgments of the ECHR

The President of the Data Protection Office should be involved in discussions and legislative work aimed at implementing ECHR judgments on the issues of personal data processing and the right to privacy.

The President of the Data Protection Office, Mirosław Wróblewski, submitted such a general comment to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the Act on the enforcement of judgments of the European Court of Human Rights (in the version of 3 March 2025). At the same time, he noted that this regulation, which introduces clear mechanisms for the enforcement of ECHR judgments, will certainly promote the strengthening of the protection of fundamental rights, including the right to respect for private and family life, guaranteed by both the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union and the Polish Constitution.

The case law of the European Court of Human Rights, as well as of the Court of Justice of the European Union (e.g. in the judgments in cases C-204/215, C-61/226, C-755/21 P) refers to these values. The standards set out therein do not fail to influence the assessment of cases involving the processing of personal data and the protection of the rights of persons guaranteed by the GDPR.

The President of the Personal Data Protection Office expressed his readiness to provide substantive support to the Team for the European Court of Human Rights operating under the minister responsible for foreign affairs at every stage of the discussion on the impact of the ECHR case-law on national law in the area of competence of the President of the Personal Data Protection Office. At the same time, he stressed that the applicable legal provisions (Article 57(1)(c) of the GDPR, Article 46(1)(c) of Directive 2016/680, Article 51 of the Act on the Protection of Personal Data) provide for the submission to the supervisory authority for its opinion of those draft legal acts which deal with personal data protection issues. Thus, in the event that, as a result of the implementation of the ECHR judgment, legal acts concerning personal data will be proceeded with, the expert role of the supervisory authority should be taken into account in such legislative process.