The European Union assessment mission evaluating implementation of Visa Liberalization Action Plan benchmarks regarding data protection by Georgia was conducted on February 23-27, 2015. Main purpose of the mission was to assess the implementation stage of the Personal Data Protection legislation in all sectors and to see how the supervisory authority operated in practice. From the Georgian side the mission was coordinated by the Office of the Inspector in cooperation with the ministry of Foreign Affairs of Georgia.

During the 5 days visit, the representative of the EU Commission, Mr. Per Ibold and EU member state expert Mr. Graham Sutton got familiar with the functions and activities of the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector and the specifics of its work. They met the staff of the Office and received information directly from them on the activities carried out since the establishment and practical issues. The experts had series of meetings with the representatives of public agencies and private companies. They got the information about the data processing systems and procedures. Meetings were held on the central and regional level.

After the visit report will be prepared that will assess the personal data protection system and evaluate implementation of the respective benchmarks. The Report will serve as a basis for the EU Commission regarding the fulfillment of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan benchmarks by Georgia.

“The visit of the evaluation mission is very important for Georgia and especially for our Office, as the fulfillment of the Visa Liberalization Action Plan obligations is the precondition for the liberalization of visa regime with the EU. We described the activities and structure of the Office to the experts in details, talked about the legislative amendments, how the law is implemented in general and what is the current state of play” – Said Ms. Nino Sarishvili, Head of the International Relations Department of the Office of the Personal Data Protection Inspector.

The visa dialogue process is in progress since 2012 and its aim is to liberalize visa regime with Europe. The EU developed the Action Plan, considering the obligations of Georgia in different directions. In 2014 Georgia successfully concluded the first phase (legislative phase) of the and now the evaluation of the second phase (implementation phase) is in progress.