Brussels, 26/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 26 May the European Commission adopted a draft mandate to negotiate a personal data protection agreement between the European Union and the United States when cooperating to fight terrorism or crime. "I want to achieve an ambitious agreement, and I will associate the European Parliament very closely to the negotiations. I urge the Council to approve the mandate as soon as possible so we can swiftly proceed with negotiations on this and other important agreements between the EU and the US," said Viviane Reding, EU Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Commissioner.
Under the draft negotiating mandate, the transfer or processing of personal data by EU or US authorities would only be permitted for specified, explicit and legitimate purposes in the framework of fighting crime and terrorism. There would be a right to access one's personal data and this would be enforceable in courts. There would be a right to have one's personal data corrected or erased if it is found to be inaccurate. There would be an individual right of administrative and judicial redress regardless of nationality or place of residence. The agreement would not provide the legal basis for any specific transfers of personal data between the EU and the US. A specific legal basis for such data transfers would always be required, such as a data transfer agreement or a national law in an EU member state. The new EU-US data protection agreement would then apply to these data transfers.
The Commission aims to establish legally binding and enforceable personal data protection standards that will ensure that individuals' fundamental rights and freedoms are protected. The Commission explains: “The EU and US are both committed to the protection of personal data and privacy. However, they still have different approaches in protecting data, leading to some controversy in the past when negotiating information exchange agreements (such as the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme, the so-called Swift agreement, or Passenger Name Records). The purpose of the agreement proposed by the Commission today is to address and overcome these differences.” The draft mandate sets out that any data protection agreement would not apply to special data transfer agreements between the US and individual EU countries until the expiry of a three-year transition period, when bilateral deals would have to be altered to meet EU data protection standards. This means that the current PNR and the future Swift deal under negotiation would continue to apply for several years to come under their own data protection rules. The draft mandate stipulates that any new deal would not apply to data transfer in the interest of national security. The Council of Ministers has to endorse the European Commission's negotiating mandate before any negotiations with the US can begin, but agreement with the Council is not expected until next year in the Commission's view. The European Parliament will be kept fully informed at all stages of the negotiations and will have to endorse any draft data protection deal reached. (B.C./transl.fl)