News item | 17-03-2023 | 3:30 pm
The National Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Security (NCTV) is responsible for coordination in the field of counterterrorism, cyber security, national security, crisis management and resilience to state threats. In order to properly perform this coordinating task, it is important that the NCTV has a solid foundation for its activities. It must be crystal clear what the NCTV is and is not allowed to do. That is why at the end of 2021, the bill ‘Processing of personal data coordination and analysis counter-terrorism and national security’ was sent to the House of Representatives. This proposal will now be amended and because of these amendments, the title of the bill will also be changed to ‘coordination of counter-terrorism and national security’.
Main bill amendments
The most important changes are that the NCTV’s coordination task will take precedence, with the analysis task disappearing as an independent task. The NCTV maintains a limited analysis function where this is necessary for the proper performance of the coordination task. This does not include the possibility of providing analyzes in which expressions of individuals are interpreted and that interpretation links a person to a trend or phenomenon in the field of counterterrorism or national security. This is therefore explicitly excluded.
The bill also includes strengthening compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) by appointing a data protection officer specifically for the processing of personal data.
In addition, the strengthening of compliance with the other standards of the bill (in addition to the processing of personal data) will change through inspections by the Justice and Security Inspectorate, whereby reports containing the Inspectorate’s findings are sent to the House of Representatives.
Continued process
The memorandum of amendment was drafted following input from the House of Representatives and concerns expressed during the earlier consultation of the bill. The Council of Ministers has approved the memorandum of amendment on the proposal of Minister Yeşilgöz-Zegerius of Justice and Security. The memorandum is sent to the Council of State for advice. As is customary in the legislative process, the memorandum of amendment is published as soon as the request for advice has been submitted to the Council of State.