It has been a great pleasure to take part in the session on "Data Protection Certification – International Perspective and Impact" at the CPDP 2022 conference in Brussels. The session chaired by Luca Bolognini, the President of the Italian Institute for Privacy brought together an outstanding panel of experts:

Chiara Romano, of the Italian Data Protection Authority (Garante), presented the EDPB perspective and expectations with regards to GDPR certification. She highlighted the fact that certification is not only about communicating compliance, but is also a process for data controllers and processors to build and enhance their compliance with the regulation. 

Marcel Vogel, of the Swiss Data Protection Authority (Federal Data Protection and Information Commissioner FDPIC), presented the experience of Switzerland with data protection certification over the last two decades. He presented the evolution with the revision of the Swiss Federal Data Protection Act and its new ordinance that are paving the way to mutual recognition with EU GDPR certifications.

Sébastien Ziegler presented the research and innovation perspective and more specifically how Europrivacy certification scheme and methodology addresses multi-jurisdictional compliance and its extension to other national data protection regulations.

Peter Kimpian, of the Council of Europe presented the international perspective and relevance of data protection certification. He confirmed that interest for data protection certification goes far beyond the European Union member states.

Finally, Fabrice Naftalski, EY Avocats, presented the demand side and market expectations. He confirmed that the demand is here and that the market also envisages certification as an accountability and interoperability enabler. What is missing is to have a well-recognized and reliable certification scheme.

Altogether the speakers highlighted the high potential for data protection certification and the importance to support international dialogue and cooperation in this domain.