The Commission has yet to pass a judgment on implementing Article 93 (2) of the Treaty.

In the city of Menden, a data protection incident has come to light, involving wage replacement compensations. The city's IT department has deemed it extremely unlikely that an external access occurred, suggesting that the data breach may have originated internally.

The extent of the data involved in this incident is more comprehensive than what was previously disclosed in non-public sessions of the audit committee and council, as well as in the press release issued by the mayor's office. The Westfalenpost has access to comprehensive data from the audit of wage replacement compensations in Menden (Sauerland).

The mayor of Menden, in accordance with the "Notification of a Personal Data Breach" under Article 33 of the GDPR, has reported this incident to the State Commissioner for Data Protection and Freedom of Information in North Rhine-Westphalia. In addition, a criminal complaint has been filed with the public prosecutor's office in Arnsberg, due to the potential for the data sharing to be a criminal offense.

A prosecutor's office in Dortmund initiated the criminal complaint regarding the suspected data leak during the examination of wage replacement benefits in Menden. At present, it cannot be estimated the extent to which these data were shared or how many individuals were involved.

In response to the incident, the city council of Menden has commissioned the audit department to review these payments. All necessary steps will be initiated following the report to the State Commissioner.

The sharing of these data could potentially constitute a criminal offense, and the mayor of Menden has also filed a criminal complaint with the public prosecutor's office in Arnsberg. It is likely that these data originated from within the administration itself.

The city's IT department is working diligently to address the incident and ensure the security of its data moving forward. The public will be kept informed as more information becomes available.

The Commission has yet to pass a judgment on implementing Article 93 (2) of the Treaty.