The Council of Europe, in cooperation with the Political Finance Monitoring Department of the State Audit Office of Georgia, conducted a workshop on ‘Personal data protection and transparency of political finance’ aiming at improving the protection of personal data collected and processed during oversight of campaign and party finance.

Transparency of campaign and party finance is a cornerstone of a healthy and competitive electoral environment. Protecting personal data during oversight of political finance is among priorities of the agency. The workshop was a good opportunity for the management and staff of the Department to discuss measures which could improve quality of data protection while guaranteeing proper access to public information.

Participants of the workshop focused in particular on: Context and basics of the Council of Europe acquis and European legislation on personal data protection; nature and forms of personal data; principles and rules of data processing; balancing rights of personal data protection and access to public information; transparency of activities of political parties and donations; data of a person with declared intention to stand for elections, an electoral subject candidate, and an electoral subject and personal data protection standards, public scrutiny as well as, on measures necessary to establish good practices related to issuance of public information during the monitoring process.

The workshop was organised within the framework of the Council of Europe Project ‘Supporting Transparency, Inclusiveness and Integrity of Electoral Practice and Process in Georgia’.