On August, 28, 2019, the Head of the Information Society Department at the Council of Europe, Patrick Penninckx, participated in a meeting in Bogota with the representatives from the Colombian administrative entity responsible for ensuring compliance with the rules on protection of personal data through their Office for the Protection of Personal Data, the Superintendence of Industry and Commerce (Superintendencia de Industria y Comercio (SIC)). The aim of the meeting was to reinforce our relationship with the Colombian Data Protection Authority after the exchanges that took place during the 17th Ibero-American Meeting on the Protection of Personal Data.

The fruitful meeting with Dr Andrés Barreto González, the Superintendent of Industry and Commerce (Superintendente de Industria y Comercio) and Nelson Remolina Angarita, the Deputy-Superintendent for the protection of personal data (Superintendente Delegado para la Protección de Datos Personales) led to discussions about the possibilities of joining the Committee of Convention 108 as observers, as a first step into Convention 108+.