SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE December 20 (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Cabildo of Tenerife has called on the Ministry of the Interior to retract the decree concerning the Traveller Registry for “restricting” the basic rights of individuals. This demand came after a motion was approved in the plenary session of the island’s governance on Friday, necessitating its withdrawal.
This restriction of rights arises, according to the resolution passed, from the requirement that “individuals must disclose sensitive information to private entities for retention and subsequent submission to the ministry for processing. This also inflicts harm on the tourism sector regarding its functioning, economic impact, and the risks associated with storing and safeguarding delicate personal information pertinent to privacy,” as stated by the Cabildo de Tenerife in a press statement.
Moreover, the motion insists that the Ministry of the Interior adhere to Consideration 1 of Regulation EU 2016/679 established by the European Parliament and Council on April 27, 2016, which “asserts that the protection of natural persons in the context of processing personal data is a fundamental right.”
In this context, it notes that Article 8(1) of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU and Article 16(1) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU stipulate that “everyone has the right to the protection of personal data concerning them.”
The Cabildo of Tenerife further emphasizes that the legislative advancement from the Ministry of the Interior should “strengthen and clarify” the rights of the concerned parties, along with the obligations of those involved in processing personal data, and ensure adherence to regulations regarding personal data protection.
The plenary agreement also requests that the Ministry of the Interior maintain the principle of prohibiting arbitrariness, “where authorities must not make arbitrary choices that violate the principle of equitable treatment of those governed by the law.”
It has also asserted that within its regulations concerning the safeguarding of individuals, at the point of collecting data for processing, there must be prior consent from the individual involved, which as the party accountable for that data handling, “must be able to prove that explicit consent has been granted.”
With this in mind, it maintains that to ensure that consent has been willingly provided, this “should not represent a valid legal ground for the processing of personal data, particularly in specific circumstances where it exists.”
The island’s plenary session will communicate this agreement to the Spanish Data Protection Agency, urging it to advocate for amendments to the referenced Royal Decree within the framework of responsibilities assigned to it by articles 57 and 58 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679, given that it “does not” conform to the principles of “adequacy, necessity, and proportionality” as established by the Constitutional Court’s jurisprudence regarding data requests and processing from individuals who travel.
The plenary resolution recalls that the Government of Spain “has entirely disregarded the statements regarding this decree from the Congress and the Senate, dismissing any consideration of an extended period for the enforcement of such a complex and impractical regulation that obstructs the everyday activities of numerous small enterprises within the tourism value chain.”
In conclusion, the text emphasizes that all of this “endangers the operation of tourist flows,” while also raising “serious legal concerns regarding the protection of rights and privacy of both domestic and international tourists and users.”
