Opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor on the Proposal for a Directive of Credit Agreements Relating to Residential Property

On 31 March 2011, the Commission adopted a proposal for a Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on credit agreements relating to residential property.

The proposal involves a limited number of activities which have relevance under the EU data protection regime. These are mainly related to the consultation by creditors and credit intermediaries of the so-called “credit database” with the purpose of assessing the creditworthiness of consumers and to the release of information by the consumers to the creditors or credit intermediaries.

The European Data Protection Supervisor provided at the end of July an official opinion regarding this directive proposal. EDPS suggests some modifications in the original text, in the following directions:

1. The introduction of a new article which will reflect that national laws implementing directive 95/46/EC are the appropriate references and emphasize that any data processing operation must be carried out in accordance with those implementing laws.

2. The text of the proposal could specify in a more detailed way the sources from which information on the creditors’ creditworthiness can be obtained.

3. The text of the proposal should include the definition of criteria for the possibility to consult the database and the obligations to communicate the data subjects’ rights before any access to the database, thereby ensuring concrete and effective possibilities for data subjects to exercise their rights.

Those interested can find the EDPS opinion HERE.