Towards efficient cooperation between supervisory authorities in the area of data privacy law

As research conducted in the framework of the PHAEDRA project (Improving Practical and Helpful cooperAtion betweEn Data Protection Authorities, 2013-2015) demonstrated, numerous cross-jurisdictional cooperation initiatives in the area of data privacy have flourished in the recent decades at bilateral, regional, supranational and international levels. However, it was also determined that these initiatives are still too immature to reach their final aim, i.e. the efficient protection of data privacy in matters producing implications in more than one jurisdiction. Therefore, this contribution discusses how to make such cooperation more efficient and how this goal could be achieved. A set of 23 legal and practical recommendations that might help both policy-makers and supervisory authorities overcome contemporary inefficiencies are proposed, including a modest action plan to that end. As a conclusion, a line is drawn between binding and non-binding types of cooperation.