Privacy policy

The European Union is committed to user privacy.

The policy on protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions is based on Regulation (EU) 2018/1725 of the European Parliament and Council of 23 October 2018 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by the Union institutions, bodies, offices and agencies and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 and Decision No 1247/2002/EC.

This general policy covers the European Union's family of institutional websites, within the europa.eu domain. Although you can browse through most of these websites without giving any personal information, in some cases information is required in order to provide the e-services you request. Websites that require such information treat it in full compliance with the regulation mentioned above and provide information about the use of your data in their specific privacy policy statements.

In this respect:

• for each e-service, a controller determines the purposes and means of personal data processing and ensures conformity with the privacy policy
• within each institution, a Data Protection Officer ensures that the provisions of the regulation are applied and advises controllers on fulfilling their obligations
• for all the institutions, the European Data Protection Supervisor acts as an independent supervisory authority

The European Union's family of institutional websites, within the europa.eu domain, provides links to third party sites. In order to use third party content on our websites, you may need to accept their specific terms and conditions, including their cookie policies, over which we have no control.

An e-service on EUROPA is a service or resource made available on the Internet in order to improve the communication between citizens and businesses on the one hand and the European institutions on the other hand.

3 types of e-services are, or will be, offered by EUROPA:

• information services that provide people, media, businesses, administrations and others with access to information
• interactive communication services that allow better contact with people, businesses, civil society and public bodies, in order to facilitate policy consultations and feedback
• services that allow access to all basic forms of transactions with the EU, such as procurement, financial operations, recruitment, event enrolment, and acquisition of documents

Information contained in a specific privacy statement

A specific privacy policy statement will contain the following information about the use of your data

• what information is collected, for what purpose and the technical means by which the EU collects personal information in order to fulfil a specific purpose
• to whom your information is disclosed
• how you can access your information, verify its accuracy and, if necessary, correct it
• how long your data is kept
• what security measures are taken to safeguard your information against possible misuse or unauthorised access
• whom to contact if you have queries or complaints

Europa Analytics

Europa Analytics is the corporate service that measures the effectiveness and efficiency of the europa.eu site managed by the European Commission on behalf of all EU institutions and bodies.

You are free to refuse the use of this service – either via the cookie banner that appears at the top of the first page you visit or at Europa Analytics.

The European Commission manages its own web pages (ec.europa.eu). Visit the privacy policy page to manage your options.

EU institutions and bodies other than the European Commission (e.g. European Parliament) may use their own Analytics system. Visit their legal notice pages for more information.

Choosing not to use this service does not affect your navigation experience on Europa sites.

More about Europa Analytics

Many web pages on Europa have a contact button, which activates your e-mail software and invites you to send your comments to a specific mailbox.

When you send such a message, your personal data is collected only to the extent necessary to reply. If the management team of the mailbox is unable to answer your question, it will forward your e-mail to another service. You will be informed, via e-mail, about which service your question has been forwarded to.

If you have any questions about the processing of your e-mail and related personal data, do not hesitate to include them in your message.

Collected personal data is stored on a computer of the external subcontractor acting as processor, who must guarantee the data protection and confidentiality required by Regulation (EU) 2018/1725.

If you want to verify, modify or delete your personal data stored by the responsible controllers for the Europa website and its sub-sites managed by the European Commission, you can use the online form to write to the data controller for the Europa website in DG Communication. In the form, clearly state the nature of your request (verifying, modifying or deleting personal data published on the Europa websites) and include the URL of the website/webpages your request refers to.

Online form to verify, modify or delete your personal data