Spring is in full swing – even if the weather is not very consistent! Labour Day has just been and gone, an excellent reminder of historical efforts across the world to build up and defend shared rights, for workers in particular.

At the EDPS, we supervise and monitor the EU institutions in order to protect fundamental rights for all EU employees, particularly when it comes to data protection and privacy. This supervisory task is a core part of our remit, which involves responding to consultations from the EU institutions, dealing with complaints relating to the handling of personal data and, of course, providing training for EU staff members, among other activities.

I believe that it is essential to educate and share information across the EU institutions on employee rights and responsibilities when it comes to data protection, and we are always looking for new ways to get the message across.

With this in mind, I am pleased to present the first in a series of infographics that put the spotlight on key issues and trends in data protection within the EU institutions regarding consultations, complaints and training topics. We track the trends in these key areas to help the EU institutions identify potential areas for improvement as well as to ensure that the assistance we give is always relevant.

The infographic shows not just the topics that are currently most relevant to the work of EU institutions, but also what we are doing at the EDPS to address these topics, and to be more responsive to the needs of our EU colleagues.

And what better time than Labour Day to talk about employment in the EU institutions, and how data protection rules play their role in protecting workers’ fundamental rights? That is why, in this first infographic, we spotlight the top 12 personal data processing operations relating to EU institution employees.

This list highlights the broad scope of data processing activities involved in employment activities, but it is also evidence of the importance of data protection compliance in protecting employee data. The wide range of EDPS Guidelines available on our website can help employers with this, while the most recent editions of the EDPS Newsletter also include some useful information on data protection and employment.

As we track these trends further in the future, we will highlight new developments and new topics of interest – which we hope that you find engaging and informative. After all, priorities in data protection are always changing – just like the spring weather!