New body

Parliament gets data supervisory authority in January

The new data protection commissioners at their swearing-in ceremony on Tuesday(Bild: Bundeskanzleramt/Florian Schrötter)

Austria's parliament will have a data supervisory authority on January 1st. The new body will consist of five people and will oversee data processing in future.

This was announced by the Chancellery on Tuesday. The Austrian legislator established the new committee as a supervisory authority following a ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) in 2024, according to a press release. From 1 January, the five members will be responsible for data protection in the National Council, the Federal Council, the Court of Audit and the Ombudsman Board.

Gerhard Baumgartner, Christian Bergauer, Philipp Grasser, Sandra Huber and Eva Souhrada-Kirchmayer are lawyers. They were elected for a five-year term following a public tender and will hold the office alongside their professional activities.

The data protection commissioners with Federal Chancellor Nehammer (3rd from left)(Bild: Florian Schrötter)

Nehammer swore in the five members of the committee on Tuesday.(Bild: Bundeskanzleramt/Florian Schötter)

This year, the ECJ ruled on which types of personal data may be used for advertising and in which cases. It clarified that certain personal data must be specially protected, that companies may only process what is absolutely necessary and that storage must be limited in time.

The new committee is part of a legislative package that also adapts the National Council's rules of procedure to the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and has created an explicit legal basis for the processing of highly sensitive data by legislators.