Terms and Conditions and Privacy Statements

The website (“Website”) of the European Stability Mechanism (“ESM”) presents news, information and images of ESM activities and the activities of the European Financial Stability Facility (“EFSF”) and provides direct access to their information, documents, data and materials.

The Website offers to the general public the opportunity to learn more about the ESM and EFSF and their activities.

Access to, and use of, the Website constitutes acceptance of the following terms and conditions (“Terms and Conditions”). Please read these Terms and Conditions as they apply to your use of the Website. If you do not agree to these Terms and Conditions, please do not use this Website.

The ESM may at any time make changes to these Terms and Conditions, the information, names, images, pictures, logos and icons described in this Website, with or without notice^[1]. The continued use of the Website following any changes to these Terms and Conditions will mean you accept such changes.

The Website contains copyrighted material, trademarks and other proprietary information including text, photos and graphics. You may not publish, display, modify, transmit, transfer, create derivative works, or in any way commercially exploit the content of this Website without the express prior written authorisation of the ESM or the EFSF, respectively and/or the copyright owner, or except as otherwise expressly permitted under copyright law. You acknowledge that the ESM and/or the EFSF and/or the copyright owner retains ownership of the content of this Website and that you do not acquire any ownership rights by downloading any content from this Website.

Neither the ESM nor the EFSF represent that the Website or any content, service or feature thereof will be error-free or uninterrupted, or that any defects will be corrected, or that your use of the Website will provide specific results. The Website and its content are delivered on an “as-is” and “as-available” basis. All information provided on the Website is subject to change without notice. Neither the ESM nor the EFSF guarantee that any files or other data you download from the Website will be free of viruses or contamination or destructive features. The ESM and the EFSF disclaim all warranties, express or implied, including any warranties of accuracy, merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose.

This Website is intended for information purposes only, and nothing in it constitutes (or should be construed as) an offer to sell any investment. Without prejudice to their rights under applicable law, users are responsible for verifying with independent or official sources that this Website’s contents and information are accurate and up-to-date before taking any actions, in particular taking investment decisions.

The Website may contain links to other websites and references to other websites maintained by third parties. Such links are merely provided for the convenience and the interest of users. Neither the ESM nor the EFSF gives or makes any warranties, undertakings or representations as to the availability, accuracy, currency, quality, completeness or fitness for purpose of any information contained in such websites nor do either of them endorse or accept any responsibility for the contents, advertising, products or other materials made available on or through such websites. Under no circumstances shall the ESM or the EFSF be held responsible or liable, directly or indirectly, for any loss or damage caused or alleged to have been caused to a user in connection with such websites.

No part of these Terms and Conditions shall constitute or be interpreted as a waiver of the privileges and immunities of the ESM and the EFSF.

The ESM and EFSF logos are owned by the ESM and EFSF, respectively and are protected by trademarks. You may not modify or create derivatives of the ESM or EFSF logos. Any use, reproduction, publication, display, transmission, making available to the public or exploitation of the ESM or EFSF logos requires prior written authorisation by the ESM or the EFSF, as applicable.

The ESM collects your personal information via its website (https://www.esm.europa.eu) to the extent necessary for the purpose of fulfilling its mandate and the related ESM activities and as further described below.

The Website, either directly or through a service provider, stores the Internet protocol (IP) address of your computer, the browser software and operating system used, and the date and time of your visit. The IP address is a number that is allocated to your computer when you are surfing the internet.

This information is used by the ESM to compile statistics concerning which countries the users of the Website visit from, when they visit, and other information about how users access the Website. The ESM also monitors network traffic to identify unauthorised attempts to upload or change information or to otherwise cause damage to the Website.

The ESM will also process the personal data you submit voluntarily (such as your name and/or email address when subscribing to publications or to job alerts) as necessary to provide the services that you request. When subscribing to the ESM blog, please note that your personal data will be processed by our service provider. If before subscribing you would like to know how your personal data is processed by them, please refer to the Granicus website.

The ESM does not distribute, sell or rent any personal information collected via its Website. This is also true for personal information (for example, email and postal addresses) sent to the Website’s email addresses. The ESM does not send unsolicited emails to users of its Website. The transmission of personal information entered via the website’s registration forms (e.g. ESM Careers page) is protected by leading security safeguards.

All personal data provided by you via the ESM Careers page is processed, collected and stored under the conditions set out in the Recruitment Privacy Statement, which is available to you once you create an account via the ESM Careers page and before you submit any further personal data.

You have the right to access and rectify personal data the ESM has collected and processes on you by contacting the ESM (see contact section of the Website).

If the ESM experiences a personal data breach that is likely to cause you a serious personal injury or harm, the Data Protection Officer will, to the extent possible, inform you of such breach and take mitigating measures as appropriate without undue delay.

A cookie is a piece of data that websites send to a user’s web browser in order to understand more about that user’s interests and intentions in using the Website. Cookies help the ESM to know which pages are visited more often, how you interact with the Website, create metrics and statistics and allow the ESM to ensure that its Website responds to the user’s needs.

The Website may use both persistent cookies (text cookies) and session cookies. A persistent cookie is a file that might contain user personal information. It is stored on a user's computer. The Website uses persistent cookies to understand which pages on the Website are popular and to recognise repeat visitors. Session cookies allow the Website to validate access to any secure areas after you have logged in - these are not stored on a user’s computer.

Your browser software should permit you to disable the use of cookies, if you do not wish to receive a cookie or if you wish your browser to notify you when you receive a cookie. Please be aware that if you disable cookies you will not be able to make use of all the features of our Website.

By setting up your browser to accept cookies and visiting this Website, you consent to the placing and use of cookies on your device or equipment.

You can follow the ESM on social media, i.e. on LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter, directly from our website. Please note that when you click on the social media buttons, these take you directly to the ESM social media page but these buttons do not set cookies on your device when you visit our website. However, you will have the possibility to sign in to any of those social media pages and your personal data will be processed by each social media channel in accordance with their own policies. If you choose, for example, to go to the ESM’s LinkedIn account, you will be asked to accept Linkedin’s cookie policy. Please refer to the policies of any of these social media accounts, if you need further information or have any concerns.

This Website uses Google Analytics, an open-source analytics platform, to help the ESM analyse how users use our Website.

This platform enables the protection of your personal data thanks to IP-anonymisation, which anonymises your IP address by removing the last two octets of your IP address. In addition, it provides to users a mechanism to opt-out so that your browsing is not processed for analytics purposes.

Google Analytics will use the information on behalf of the ESM for evaluating your use of the Website and to prepare aggregated, anonymous statistics reports on visitor activity.

By default, the browsing experience of Website visitors is tracked by Google Analytics in order to produce anonymised statistics. You may choose not to be tracked (opt-out). If you change your mind, you can choose to be tracked again (opt-in).

If you wish to opt-out (or opt-in back again) please click here:

Disable Google Analytics

Please note that if you regularly delete your cookies, you will need to opt-out each time you delete them.

Each time you visit the Website, the following data is automatically processed, which may relate to you as a user (“Browser Data”):

• Your IP address,
• Type of your browser,
• Date and time of your visit,
• HTTP status code of the access (server information to client about successful processing of request),
• Website from which your system accessed our website (referrer URL),
• Website that is accessed by your system from our website (accessed URL),
• Your location.

The processing of Browser Data is technically necessary. It is carried out to properly display our website to you and to ensure its stability and security. This data processing is necessary in the execution of the ESM’s mandate, for the performance of tasks or activities carried out by the ESM in accordance with the ESM Treaty, By-Laws, and the applicable rules and procedures; this includes the processing of personal data necessary for the management and functioning of the ESM.

We store the Browser Data in so-called server log files for troubleshooting purposes. Browser Data is not stored together with other data relating to you, e.g., your application data. This data processing is necessary in the execution of the ESM’s mandate, for the performance of tasks or activities carried out by the ESM in accordance with the ESM Treaty, By-Laws, and the applicable rules and procedures; this includes the processing of personal data necessary for the management and functioning of the ESM.

For the provision of the website, we use the web hoster service provided by Oracle Luxembourg S.à.r.l (“Oracle Luxembourg”). Oracle Luxembourg servers on which the website is hosted are located in Frankfurt, Germany. Oracle Luxembourg is a part of Oracle Corp., a corporation with global reach. For this reason, Browser Data, may be transferred by Oracle Luxembourg to third-countries that do not provide an adequate level of protection for personal data. In case Browser Data are transferred by Oracle Luxembourg to such third-countries, Oracle Luxembourg is required to take adequate measures designed to protect personal data embodied in Browser Data in line with Oracle’s Binding Corporate Rules for Processors (BCR-P) or the terms of the EU Model Clauses.

Cookies are text files that are stored on the browser or by the browser on the user's computer which provide information about the user. Technically necessary cookies, which are necessary to display the website to you, will be set when accessing the Website. The cookies listed below identify the connection between you and the Website and ensure the stability of the Website. This data processing is necessary in the execution of the ESM’s mandate, for the performance of tasks or activities carried out by the ESM in accordance with the ESM Treaty, By-Laws, and the applicable rules and procedures; this includes the processing of personal data necessary for the management and functioning of the ESM.

If you sign up for job alerts, we will process your name, your e-mail-address, your field of interest and your preferred job location. We use this data to keep you updated about job opportunities at the ESM and to attract potential applicants. The legal basis for this data processing operation is your consent. We will store your personal data until you withdraw your consent (as mentioned below).

To apply for a position at the ESM you first must register and log in to an application account. For this purpose, we process your username, your password, and your e-mail address. The legal basis for the processing of your personal data is your request prior to entering into an employment or another contract with us. We will delete your login data if your account is inactive for two years.

When you apply to one of our vacancies, to review your application, we process the following personal data:

• Uploaded documents: cover letter and resume
• Basic data: name, address, (secondary) nationality, date of birth, gender, phone number, email address
• Whether you are a current or former ESM employee
• Language skills: mother tongue, level of English, other languages including skill level
• Employment preferences: conditions, interests, and date of availability
• Work experience: last/current/former employers, employment sector, job function, location of employer, start date, and end date
• Education: institution, major/program, location, education level, start date, and graduation date

If you are a candidate to an interim work position, we may also collect personal data from third parties in relation to you. Interim agencies submit applications on behalf of their candidates via our website. In such case, they provide the candidate’s CV, name/first name, nationality, postal address, and email address.

The legal basis for the processing of your personal data is your request prior to entering into an employment contract with us. If you are the selected candidate, the ESM may process your application data during the employment or other relationship, as applicable, and after the end of this relationship in accordance with ESM’s schedule of retention periods. If you are not the selected candidate, we retain your personal data for two years after their submission.

There might be processing activities which involve processing of personal data of individuals external to the ESM that are addressed into details in separate privacy statements.

For any information on how we process your personal data related to:

• ESM events – please, refer to our general privacy statement on the processing of personal data during the organisation and management of events, as well as the specific privacy statement dedicated to the particular event;
• Recruitment – please, refer to the ESM recruitment privacy statement published on the dedicated ESM website page
• Whistleblowing procedure – please refer to the ESM privacy statement for the online whistleblowing reporting system (Reporting)

For the performance of tasks or activities carried out by the ESM in accordance with the ESM treaty, by-laws, and the applicable rules and procedures (including processing activities necessary for the management and functioning of the ESM). The majority of the personal data processing activities carried out by the ESM are necessary for the management and the functioning of the ESM. In all those instances we make sure that the processing is proportionate to the purposes identified by the ESM.

If you have voluntarily given your consent to the processing of your personal data for one or more specific purposes.

When processing is necessary for the purposes of the legitimate interests pursued by the ESM or a third party, except where such interests are overridden by your interests or fundamental rights and freedoms.

When processing is necessary for the performance of a contract to which you are a party or in order to take steps at your request prior to entering into a contract

The recipients of your personal data are ESM members of staff in charge of the organisation and management of an event. They may also be interim workers, trainees, or consultants working for the ESM.

Third party processors that are used by the ESM to undertake the organisation and management of the event. The general public may have access to photographs or videos that are posted on social media (as well as the social media providers themselves), the ESM website, or an ESM publication where you consented to it.

The ESM further ensures that when third-party service providers process data on behalf of the ESM, appropriate contractual safeguards are put in place to protect your personal data.

You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal data.

You have the right to ask us to rectify personal data you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

You have the right to ask us to erase your personal data in certain circumstances.

You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

You have the right to withdraw your consent whenever we are processing your personal data basing on consent - at any moment and without any detriment.