NRW State Parliament Hearing: Abolishing State Data Protection Officers Faces Constitutional Hurdles (heise.de)

• Constitutional experts identify major hurdles to abolishing state data protection officers; full centralization conflicts with Basic Law.
• Experts predominantly recommend modernizing federal structures, e.g., strengthening the Data Protection Conference, over abolition.
• NRW commissioner Gayk reports 12,600 complaints in 2025, stressing need for local handling and calling centralization 'absurd'.

"A hearing in North Rhine-Westphalia's state parliament on abolishing mandatory state data protection officers encountered broad constitutional concerns. Several experts warned that fully centralizing data protection oversight with the federal commissioner is hardly compatible with Germany's Basic Law. While reform is widely seen as necessary, experts predominantly favor modernizing existing federal structures rather than abolishing them."