L 215/4 Official Journal of the European Communities 25.8.2000 COMMISSION DECISION of 26 July 2000 pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequate protection of personal data provided in Hungary (notified under document number C(2000) 2305) (Text with EEA relevance) (2000/519/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data (%), and in particular Article 25(6) thereof, Whereas: ey Pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC Member States are required to provide that the transfer of personal data to a third country may take place only if the third country in question ensures an adequate level of protection and if the Member State's laws implementing other provisions of the Directive are complied with prior to the transfer. The Commission may find that a third country ensures an adequate level of protection. In that case personal data may be transferred from the Member States without additional guarantees being necessary. Pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC the level of data protection should be assessed in the light of all the circumstances surrounding a data transfer operation or a set of data transfer operations and in respect of given conditions. The Working Party on Protection of Individuals with regard to the Processing of Personal Data established under that Directive has issued guidance on the making of such assessments (3). () OJL 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31. (3 Opinion 12/98, adopted by the Working Party on 24 July 1998: ‘Transfers of personal data to third countries. Applying Articles 25 and 26 of the EU Data Protection Directiveé (DG MARKT D/5025/98), available on the Europa website hosted by the Commission: http://europe.eu.int/comm/internal_market/en/media/ dataprot/wpdocs/index.htm 4) (%) Available  on Given the different approaches to data protection in third countries, the adequacy assessment should be carried out, and any decision based on Article 25(6) of Directive 95/46/EC should be enforced in a way that does not arbitrarily or unjustifiably discriminate against or between third countries where like conditions prevail nor constitute a disguised barrier to trade, regard being had to the Community's present international commitments. As regards Hungary, the legal standards on the protection of personal data have binding legal effect. The protection of privacy, particularly with regard to the processing of personal data, is provided for by Article 59 of the Hungarian Constitution. The legal provisions are laid down by Law LXIII of 17 November 1992, which entered into force on 1 May 1993. Various sectoral laws have also incorporated provisions on the protection of personal data in various areas such as statistics, market research, scientific research and health. With effect from 1 February 1998, Hungary ratified the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention No 108) (%), which aims to reinforce the protection of personal data and to ensure free circulation between the Contracting Parties, subject to any exceptions which these parties may provide for. Without being directly applicable, the Convention lays down the international commitments concerning not only the basic principles of protection which each Contracting Party must implement in its internal law but also the mechanisms of cooperation between the Contracting Parties. In particular, the competent Hungarian authorities must provide the authorities of the other Contracting Parties which so request with any information on the law and administrative practice regarding data protection, and with information on any specific instance of automatic processing of data. They must also assist any person residing abroad in exercising his right to be informed about the existence of website:  http://conventions.coe.int/treaty[EN/ cadreintro.htm