Article 74
Tasks of the Chair
Chapter 7
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European Data Protection Board
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📖 3 min read
1. The Chair shall have the following tasks:
- (a) to convene the meetings of the Board and prepare its agenda;
- (b) to notify decisions adopted by the Board pursuant to Article 65 to the lead supervisory authority and the supervisory authorities concerned;
- (c) to ensure the timely performance of the tasks of the Board, in particular in relation to the consistency mechanism referred to in Article 63.
2. The Board shall lay down the allocation of tasks between the Chair and the deputy chairs in its rules of procedure.
Understanding This Article
Article 74 defines the Chair's core responsibilities, focusing on coordination, communication, and ensuring the Board fulfills its obligations within required timeframes.
Convening meetings and preparing agendas (paragraph 1(a)) gives the Chair significant influence over the Board's work. The Chair determines meeting frequency (weekly, monthly, quarterly, or ad hoc based on needs), schedules meetings considering members' availability, and prepares agendas identifying issues for discussion. Agenda-setting power is substantial—the Chair prioritizes certain issues, determines how much time to allocate to topics, and can shape discussion framing. However, this power is constrained by Board rules of procedure and members' ability to request agenda items or reject inadequate agendas.
Notifying binding decisions (paragraph 1(b)) is an administrative but crucial function. After the Board adopts binding decisions under Article 65 resolving disputes between authorities, the Chair formally communicates these decisions to the lead authority and concerned authorities. This notification triggers Article 65(6)'s one-month deadline for authorities to adopt final decisions implementing the Board's decision. Timely, clear notification is essential for the consistency mechanism's functioning.
Ensuring timely task performance (paragraph 1(c)), particularly for the consistency mechanism, is perhaps the Chair's most demanding responsibility. The consistency mechanism has strict deadlines: four weeks for objections (Article 60(4)), eight weeks for Board opinions (Article 64(3)), one month for binding decisions (Article 65(2)), two weeks for urgency procedures (Article 66(4)). The Chair monitors these deadlines, ensures necessary documents are circulated promptly, prods authorities to submit required information, manages Board deliberations to reach decisions within timeframes, and coordinates with the secretariat on logistics.
Missing deadlines would undermine the consistency mechanism's effectiveness. If the Board fails to issue opinions within eight weeks, uncertainty persists about whether authorities' draft decisions comply with GDPR. If binding decisions aren't adopted within one month, disputes remain unresolved, potentially allowing ongoing violations. The Chair's deadline management is crucial for system functioning.
Paragraph 2's task allocation between Chair and deputy chairs provides flexibility. Deputy chairs might lead specific working groups, manage particular thematic areas (one deputy handles international transfers issues, another handles technology issues), represent the Board at events when the Chair is unavailable, or support the Chair with specific consistency mechanism cases. This distribution, specified in rules of procedure, prevents overburdening the Chair and leverages deputy chairs' expertise.
In practice, the Chair is the Board's public face—giving speeches, conducting media interviews, testifying to Parliament, meeting with Commission officials, representing the Board at international forums, and communicating with stakeholders. While these external responsibilities aren't explicitly listed in Article 74, they flow from the Chair's role representing the Board (Article 68(2)) and ensuring its tasks are performed.