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European Innovation Council and SMEs Executive Agency (EISMEA)

EISMEA data protection notice

One of your rights under EU law is that you must be informed when your personal information - also known as personal data - is processed (collected, used, stored, disclosed etc.) by any organisation including EU institutions.

You also have the right to know the details.

Here we provide you with some general information on how your personal data is processed, including the use of cookies and social media. In addition and for further information please consult the general legal notice and the privacy notice of the europa.eu website, as well as the Agency´s public register of processing activities.

Your personal data

Although you can browse through most of these websites without giving any information about yourself, in some cases, personal data is required in order to provide services you request;
EISMEA collects your personal data only to the extent necessary to fulfil precise purpose(s) related to our tasks as an EU institution Article 5(1)(a) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725)  or based on your explicit consent (Article 5(1)(d) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1725) which are cookies to allow you to browse our website, or data provided to reply to your requests;

  • We do not reuse personal data for another purpose different to the ones stated;
  • We put in place measures to guarantee that your data are kept up-to-date and processed securely;
  • Under certain conditions outlined in law, we may disclose your information to third parties, (such as the internal audit service, the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), the European Court of Auditors (ECA), the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO) or law enforcement authorities) if it is necessary and proportionate for lawful, specific purposes.

Cookies

Cookies are used for the technical functioning of a website or for gathering statistics.

Cookies are also typically used to provide a more personalised experience for a user for example, when an online service remembers your user profile without you having to login.

When you visit our website, we may collect some data on your browsing experience such as your IP address, the EISMEA page you visited, when you visited and the website page you were redirected from.

This information is used to gather aggregated and anonymous statistics with a view to improving our services and to enhance your user experience.

When you visit the EISMEA website, we will keep the browser history of your visit for a maximum of 13 months. This information will then be deleted.

The collection, aggregation and anonymising operations are performed in the data centre of the European Commission under adequate security measures.

Your rights

  • You have the right to access your personal data, to have it rectified or erased or to request restriction of processing or to object to the processing if applicable.
  • Your rights to information, access, rectification, erasure, restriction of processing, communication of a personal data breach or confidentiality of electronic communications may be restricted under certain conditions as set out in the EISMEA Restriction Decision.
  • When processing is based on your consent, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time without affecting the lawfulness of the processing based on your consent before its withdrawal. 
  • You have the right of recourse to the European Data Protection Supervisor and to the EISMEA-DPOatec [dot] europa [dot] eu (EISMEA Data protection officer) at any time if you believe your data protection rights have been breached
  • If you need further information or you wish to exercise your rights as a data subject under EU data protection rules  applicable to EU Institutions (Regulation (EU) 2018/1725).
  • You can contact the controller for this processing operation: the EISMEA Head of Unit for Workplace, IT and Communication via the  Contact us web form.

Contact form

In order to allow us to handle your request submitted via the Contact form, you have to provide your name and your email address and other information, if needed, to allow us to assess and to answer your request.

EISMEA processes the data provided to ensure effective handling of your request including to attribute your request to the competent services.

EISMEA keeps the data provided, in accordance with the applicable procedure as outlined in the Agency´s public register of processing activities, usually up to five years after its receipt.

Transparency register

In order to enhance public access to information on meetings between high-level officials and interest representatives, the following information about meetings will be published in the EISMEA transparency register,:

  • the date and location of the meeting
  • the name of the EISMEA representative holding management functions (Head of Unit, Head of Department, Director)
  • the name of the interest representative (organisation or self-employed individual)
  • the subject of the meeting
  • minutes of the meeting, including subject matter, main points raised, positions expressed and conclusions, where applicable. 

EISMEA keeps the data provided usually up to five years after its receipt.

Newsletters

In order to subscribe to EISMEA's newsletters, you have to provide email address where you wish to receive them.

EISMEA collects only the list of currently chosen newsletters with the associated email address. No other information at any moment is transferred to other systems.

EISMEA keeps only the current state of data. No history is saved. Each change of your subscription erases instantly previous data; this includes also cancelling your subscriptions. You can unsubscribe anytime by clicking on the 'unsubscribe' link available in the footer of each individual newsletter. 

Social media

We use social media to present our work through widely used and contemporary channels.

Our use of social media is highlighted on this website. For instance, you can watch EISMEA videos, which we upload to our YouTube page and follow links from our website to Twitter and LinkedIn.

Cookies are not set by our display of social media buttons to connect to those services when our website pages are loaded on your computer (or other devices) or from components from those services embedded in our web pages.

Each social media channel has their own policy on the way they process your personal data when you access their sites. For example, if you choose to watch one of our videos on YouTube, you will be asked for explicit consent to accept YouTube cookies; if you look at our Twitter activity on Twitter, you will be asked for explicit consent to accept Twitter cookies; the same applies for LinkedIn.

If you have any concerns or questions about their use of your personal data, you should read their privacy policies carefully before using them.

Twitter/X disclaimer

Twitter/X is used by EISMEA for information purposes only.

EISMEA follows some Twitter/X users. However, being followed by EISMEA does not imply endorsement of any kind. EISMEA reserves the right to not reply individually to messages or comments received on Twitter.

The use of Twitter by EISMEA, including the Twitter/X hyperlink, does not in any way imply endorsement of Twitter/X and/or its Privacy Policy. Twitter may occasionally be unavailable and EISMEA accepts no responsibility for lack of service due to Twitter/X downtime.

EISMEA  recommends that users read theTwitter/X Privacy Policy that explains Twitter's policy of data collection and processing, the use of data by Twitter/X and includes a list of users' rights and the ways in which they can protect their privacy when using Twitter/X.

Last Update: April 2025

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