Transparency must not violate GDPR

The Minister of Sport and Tourism recognised the validity of the comments raised by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office and the Polish sports associations and amended the Regulation on guidelines for the organisational units of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism preparing grant programmes with regard to the transparency of beneficiaries.

The need for changes was pointed out by Mirosław Wróblewski, the President of the Personal Data Protection Office, in his speech of 18 January 2025, no. DPNT. 413.4.2025 to the Minister of Sport and Tourism. He indicated that Regulation No. 19 by the Minister of Sports and Tourism introducing principles of transparency in the distribution of public money to sports associations, need to be adapted to GDPR. The President of the Personal Data Protection Office pointed out that adopting a model of de facto universal openness of documentation produced by entities participating in grant programmes (information is to be visible on the organisations' websites) exceeds the need to ensure transparency of their functioning. It leads to excessive interference in the right to personal data protection and privacy of persons whose personal data are disclosed.

We reported on this speech on the Personal Data Protection Office’s website in a communication: https://uodo.gov.pl/en/553/1842

The Minister of Sport and Tourism considered the comments raised by the President of the Personal Data Protection Office and the Polish sports associations to be valid and issued Regulation No. 25 amending Regulation No. 19 on guidelines for the organisational units of the Ministry of Sport and Tourism preparing grant programmes with regard to the transparency of beneficiaries.

Introduced on 13 February 2025, the changes specify that personal data of coaches, instructors and referees will only be published with their consent meeting the conditions set out in the GDPR. The scope of publication of lists of members of organisations has been restricted. Now only lists of legal entities can be published, not all members of an organisation. The scope of published resolutions and decisions of governing bodies has also been reduced - only documents that do not contain sensitive data will be disclosed.

These changes take into account the provisions of GDPR. The Minister also ensures that he has reached a consensus with the Polish sports associations on the current wording of the modified guidelines.