The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection has initiated, based on the news published in the media, that the Ministry of State Administration and Local Self-Government and Ministry of Interior have signed „Agreement on Operational–Technical Cooperation“, having for its objective "establishing electronic records on the citizens of Serbia", as well as that "commencing with the date of publishing this news shall start the process of registering the data from the Book of Citizens in so-called Central Register", the supervision procedure over implementation of the Personal Data Protection Law by those two Ministries.
Because the agreement text hasn’t been published, and the opinion of the Commissioner was not asked for regarding its contents, although it obviously has as its subject broad scope of processing personal data, the Commissioner asked the Ministries to deliver within five days a copy of the signed „Agreement on Operational–Technical Cooperation“, as well as to give declaration about several issues like: what is the legal ground for establishing so-called Central Register; who is the controller and which personal data shall be contained in the quoted register; from which sources shall personal data be transferred; what is the purpose of that processing; who shall be the future users and especially if organizational and technical measures have been undertaken for data protection during electronic exchange of the quoted data, and if they have, to describe them (data exchange system architecture, its administration, authorization and authentication process, security/authentication protocols etc.).
The Commissioner has also, under the same circumstances, and due to the same reasons and with same request, based on the news that between the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Interior a „Memorandum on Electronic Data Exchange“ has been signed, initiated the supervision procedure over the implementation of the Personal Data Protection Law in those two Ministries.
The Commissioner generally holds the position that the cooperation between our ministries is something based on Constitution and the law, determined by the common goal, protection and enhancing the rights of citizens, and for that purpose special agreements or protocols aren’t necessary. But, independently from that, the Commissioner stresses, speaking of personal data protection in any case, according to the Constitution and adequate Constitutional Court decision, the legal ground for it, as well as the purpose and scope of processing can and must be regulated solely based on the Law, and not by subordinate legal acts.
After the completion of the supervision procedure, the Commissioner shall inform the public about the results and potential measures that he might undertake.
