Brussels, 14/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova (a Czech national) said on a trip to Berlin on Monday 13 April that the European Commission expected results by June on the Safe Harbour system for the transfer of personal information about people in Europe to US companies like Google and Facebook and that the European Commission was in talks about this with its US counterparts.
During a meeting with German justice minister Heiko Maas, the Commissioner said that the EU wants the US to agree on permanent and regular controls of companies certified under the Safe Harbour programme.
Bloomberg reports: “We want a clear agreement on a limited and clearly defined number of exceptions for law enforcement and security agencies' access the data and on rules of proportionality of their data use,” said Jourova. “This must be guaranteed in writing by the US side,”
The Commissioner wants a deal to be struck by 28 May, when the two sides will be meeting for an EU-US ministerial summit in Riga.
In the summer of 2013, following Edward Snowden's revelations about the action of the US spy agency NSA (National Security Agency), the Commissioner at the time, Viviane Reding, gave the US a year to introduce 13 recommendations to improve the Safe Harbour system that was also highlighted in the NSA scandal. (Solenn Paulic)