PSOE and Podemos want to remove from the Fiscal Council the appointment of the head of Data Protection of the Prosecutor's Office

They propose that the appointment remain in the hands of the attorney general chosen by the Government

MADRID, 28 Sep. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The PSOE and United We Can have proposed to modify the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office so that the public prosecutor responsible for the Data Protection Unit is no longer appointed by an absolute majority in the Fiscal Council.

This is stated in a joint amendment registered in Congress to the draft organic law on organizational efficiency of the Justice public service, which, together with the draft law on procedural efficiency and the law on digital efficiency, constitutes the legislative basis of the Justice 2030 plan, defended by the Ministry led by Pilar Llop.

Specifically, both formations have proposed suppressing letter l) of section four of article 14 of the Organic Statute of the Public Prosecutor's Office, which would revoke the power of the Fiscal Council to appoint by absolute majority the head of the Supervision and Control Unit of Data Protection.

In the amendment, to which Europa Press has had access, both the PSOE and United We Can have proposed that the head of said unit assume the status of Data Protection Delegate for the processing of "data for non-jurisdictional purposes, once it is appointed as such by the State Attorney General".

According to the proposed text, the unit "will exercise with full independence and neutrality" and will see its name shortened, since in the current law it appears as the Data Protection Supervision and Control Unit.

The initiative of both parties that the appointment becomes a competence of the attorney general is a proposal that the head of the Public Ministry, Álvaro García Ortiz, reflected in the 2021 Report of the Prosecutor's Office, in which he assured that the person for this position should not be appointed by the Fiscal Council, but by the Government.

The PSOE and United We Can have specified in their amendment that the person chosen to lead the unit, in the case of not having the first category of the career (Room Prosecutor), "must have more than 20 years of service in the career and belong to the second category, in which case he will acquire for all purposes, while holding this position, the condition of that category".

The two parties point out that the person in charge of the Data Protection Unit will be appointed for a term of "five years renewable" for another period of "identical duration", during which time he will exclusively carry out the "functions derived" from such position.

Regarding the possibility of being dismissed, the formations have stated that "only" it may be so for "the expiration of the term of appointment and by resignation accepted by the Attorney General of the State, or removed, if incapacity or serious breach in the exercise of its functions, by the Government at the proposal of the State Attorney General, who must previously hear the Fiscal Council and the interested party.

If he is terminated or relieved, he will also lose the status of Data Protection Delegate. If he is a Chamber prosecutor, he will be assigned to the Supreme Court Prosecutor's Office or to any of the prosecutor's offices to which he belongs due to having the first category, while if he is of the second, "he will be incorporated as an assigned, at his choice, to the Prosecutor's Office in which he was assigned before" of the Data Protection Unit, "or to the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous or Provincial Community of Madrid, or to the Prosecutor's Office of the Autonomous or Provincial Community of origin, until occupying a place in property".

In the Annual Report, García Ortiz already pointed out that the temporary limitation of five non-renewable years imposed by the reform was "unjustified", because the renewal of the mandate --at least for a new period-- is a "fundamental factor of stability that gives the position greater guarantees of independence".

In this sense, the attorney general argued that, as proposed by this amendment, the person in charge of the unit should belong to the first category "in order to provide greater authority and independence to the position" and, if not, enjoy for all purposes and during his term of consideration as prosecutor of the Chamber.

Likewise, García Ortiz presented his request to carry out an "urgent" reform of the data protection law for the purpose of criminal investigations, and thus return powers to prosecutors.