• Ex-post evaluations/fitness checks of existing legislation

In its report following two years of the application of the GDPR, the Commission noted that further progress was needed to make the handling of cross-border cases more efficient and harmonised across the EU [Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council, Data protection as a pillar of citizens’ empowerment and the EU’s approach to the digital transition -two years of application of the General Data Protection Regulation (COM/2020/264 final). ]. In a staff working document accompanying the repor [Commission staff working document accompanying the document Communication from theCommission to the European Parliament and the Council, Data protection as a pillar of citizens’ empowerment and the EU’s approach to the digital transition -two years of application of the General Data Protection Regulation (SWD(2020) 115 final). ], the Commission identified the need to tackle differences in the following areas:

• national administrative procedures, concerning in particular: complaint handling procedures, the admissibility criteria for complaints, the duration of proceedings due to different timeframes or the absence of any deadlines, the moment in the procedure when the right to be heard is granted, the information and involvement of complainants during the procedure;

• interpretations of concepts relating to the cooperation mechanism; and

• the approach to when to start the cooperation procedure, involve DPAs concerned and communicate information to them.