During its February plenary, the EDPB adopted a procedure for the adoption of EDPB Opinions on national criteria for certification and European Data Protection Seals. This document is addressed to all applicants of certification criteria and aims to streamline and facilitate the adoption of EDPB Opinions on certification criteria by clarifying the approval process of national and EU-wide certification criteria, as well as criteria for certification meant as tools for international transfers.
More precisely, this document introduces all the steps that the Data Protection Authorities (DPAs) need to take from the moment they receive the criteria from the scheme owners to the moment they communicate to the EDPB Chair whether they intend to follow the EDPB Opinion.
This document will supersede Internal Document 04/2019 on the procedure for the adoption of the EDPB Opinions on the DPA’s draft accreditation requirements for certification bodies and the DPA’s draft decisions on criteria of certification (the parts related to the procedure for the adoption of opinions on accreditation requirements will remain valid). It will also supersede the EDPB document on the procedure for the approval of certification criteria by the EDPB resulting in a common certification, the European Data Protection Seal.