ECJ: Firing of data protection director illegal

Competition

On the first day after his election victory, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was reminded of his government’s often tense relations with the European Commission: Yesterday, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled that the PM had broken European Union law when national data protection agency director András Jori was dismissed one year into a four-year term in 2012.

“The independence of supervisory authorities necessarily covers the obligation to allow them to serve their full term of office,” ran an official statement from the ECJ in part.

European Commissioner for Justice Viviane Reding stated that the lack of an independent data ombudsman in Hungary was tantamount to “a lowering of the level of data protection.”

Hungary’s Justice Ministry has yet to publicly comment on the decision.

SUPPORT THE BUDAPEST BUSINESS JOURNAL

Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For 27 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.
Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.

Support the BBJ

Startups