The Twinning Project on strengthening the capacities of the National Center for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Moldova held the Closure meeting

The Delegation of the European Union to the Republic of Moldova, the National Center for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Moldova (NCPDP), the Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Latvia, supported by the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ), held the Closure meeting of the Twinning Project ‘Capacity Building of the National Center for Personal Data Protection of the Republic of Moldova.

On Wednesday 18 December, the Twinning Project’s official Closure meeting took place at the “ARTCORE” – Creative Industries Center in Chisinau. The introductions were held by Mr. Eduard RADUCAN, Director of the National Center for Personal Data Protection, Marco GEMMER, Head of the Operation Section of the European Union Delegation to the Republic of Moldova, Mr. Ullrich KINNE, Counsellor of the Embassy of the Federal Republic of German in the Republic of Moldova, Mrs. Kristine POMMERE, Deputy State Secretary, Ministry of Justice of Latvia and Mrs.Katharina TEGEDER, IRZ Head of Section, German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation.

The project was funded by the European Union, with a budget of 1 million EUR, and was implemented in partnership with the Independent Centre for Privacy Protection of Schleswig-Holstein in Germany and the Latvian Ministry of Justice during 27 month starting with 2 October 2017.

The Twinning Project’s purpose was threefold:
 to harmonise the Republic of Moldova’s national legislation in the field of data protection with the European Union’s legal framework and standards;
 to strengthen the Moldovan National Centre for Personal Data Protection’s capabilities;
 to raise awareness around data protection legislation among data subjects, data controllers and data processors.

During the Project were elaborated: recommendations on the draft law “Law on Personal data protection”, guidelines/draft code of conducts for processing personal data in the health, finance, law enforcement, electoral process, media, video surveillance and electronic communication sectors have been drafted, standard operating procedures for NCPDP staff, educational and communication materials aimed at supporting target groups to adapt to requirements laid down in the GDPR and EU Directive 2016/680, a communication and awareness raising action plan delivered to NCPDP for further review and adoption. As well ex-post survey on the perception of the right to and enforcement of personal data protection in the Republic of Moldova draft of the new National Strategy on personal data protection for 2020-2025 was proposed for the NCPDP for further adoption according to the national legislation were delivered.

The Project experts taking into account opinion of the representatives of the private and public sector reviewed 32 national legislative acts to harmonize legislation according to the personal data protection EU standards, 8 trainings were provided to the NCPDP staff, including train-the-trainers sessions on GDPR and Police Directive 2016/680. 384 representatives (middle and senior levels) from other government institutions were trained on personal data processing requirements during the 18 workshops, 30 seminars on the protection of personal data in different sectors for private sector were held with the participation of more than 1500 persons. The NCPDP website was modernized adapting the design and facilities to the modern world demands.

During the closing event of the EU Twinning Project, the Director of the NCPDP gave a speech in which he thanked and appreciated the European Union Delegation in the Republic of Moldova, as well as the European partners, the IRZ and the Ministry of Justice of Latvia – for the efficient collaboration that materialized through the realization of this Project. “The implementation of the EU Twinning Project is a first one in the history of our authority. I want to point out that this Project, in addition to the contribution it has made to fulfilling the commitments of the Republic of Moldova in order to continue its European path, the agenda of activities carried out by the missions of experts together with the representatives of the NCPDP has significantly contributed to strengthening the right to protection personal data. I hope very much that this successful friendship relationship between the NCPDP and the European institutions involved in this Project will continue with the same success even further. I am fully confident that today, one chapter ends, that of the EU Twinning Project within the NCPDP, and at the same time we reopen a new one – maintaining and implementing the results obtained in the team, thus ensuring an adequate level of protection of personal data, the same as in all EU Member States.”

In total 34 experts from Germany and Latvia, but also from Hungary, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania, Estonia and Malta participated in the project implementing more than 24 different activities in 3 components aiming at different goals: assessments, evaluations, roundtables, guidelines, recommendations, various forms of capacity building activities (seminars, workshops, training of trainers, etc.) and study visits to EU Member States.