EU’s Top Privacy Role Remains Unfilled—Here’s What’s Holding It Up

On December 5, the incumbent European Data Protection Supervisor’s term came to an end. EU parliamentarians and national governments are still unable to agree on who would be in charge of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), the privacy monitor of EU institutions, six months after its term ended.

According to those with knowledge of the situation, the choice of who will succeed Poland’s Wojciech Wiewiórowski as EDPS is still up in the air.

Delays have marred the selection process. Due to delays in approving a shortlist of applicants, the Commission postponed the hearings to January, even though they were scheduled to take place before December 5th, when Wojciech Wiewiórowski’s mandate ended.

Politicians were unable to reach a consensus on a successor after that, with the European Parliament and member states supporting different candidates from the four that the Commission selected after hearings in January 2025.

Representatives from both institutions formed a special working group, which held a few meetings but came to no firm conclusions. Since then, no more meetings have been held to discuss the matter.

The member states are supporting Wiewiórowski’s retention for a second term, but the Parliament’s Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee, or LIBE, chose to choose veteran Commission official Bruno Gencarelli from Italy.

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A group of privacy scholars and the research organization Centre for AI & Digital Humanism wrote to the leaders of the Commission and Parliament in March 2025, indicating that Gencarelli should be conflicted from the role.

Appointing him would be “a violation of the constitutionally protected complete independence of EDPS and of the principle of good administration. This would also undermine the European system of checks and balances, in favour of the Commission,” the letter said, adding that the next privacy chief should be a “candidate whose independence is beyond doubt.”

The EDPS job has never been held by a former Commission official: Wiewiórowski, as well as his predecessors Peter Hustinx (2004-2009 and 2009-2014) and Giovanni Buttarelli (2014 -2019) all previously worked at national supervisory authorities.

In the absence of a new head of the watchdog, Wiewiórowski is continuing his work.