Brussels, 03/06/2015(Agence Europe) - In Riga on Wednesday 3 June, the European Commissioner for Justice, Vera Jourova, welcomed the efforts of the United States to give the Europeans the means to obtain redress on American soil in the event that their personal data is used wrongly or in an unjustified fashion by the intelligence services, via the Judicial Redress Act.
More specifically, she told an EU/US ministerial meeting on justice and home affairs issues that once it is ratified by the American Congress, this American bill will allow the two sides to finalise the transatlantic framework agreement on data protection, which has been under discussion since early 2011. “We are not there yet, but we have not much further to go”, the Commissioner said, adding that the framework agreement would be signed as soon as the Congress has ratified the new bill.
This so-called umbrella agreement will lay down all of the standards for the protection of personal data to be observed in the future by the United States and the EU when negotiating international agreements involving transfers of data, such as the agreements on passenger information (PNR) or the SWIFT/TFTP agreement on banking data.
'Safe Harbour' lagging behind
This good news, the Commissioner went on to stress, must not overshadow the delays in the discussions on the 'Safe Harbour' agreement, which the Commission asked to be amended in summer 2013 following the revelations of the whistleblower Edward Snowden. Although the Commissioner flagged up progress as regards “commitments on trade aspects” with the Department of Trade (12 recommendations out of 13), the European side is still awaiting clarifications on the exemptions permissible for reasons of national security, such as access to these personal data by the American intelligence services, for instance the American National Security Agency (NSA). The European Parliament is calling for a revision of this mechanism, which allows data to be transferred to companies such as Google and Facebook.
The two sides also discussed the agreement on mutual assistance in legal matters, which entered into force in 2003 following the attacks of 11 September, and which could be revised at the end of this year if the assessment to be launched by the Commission concludes that there is a need to do so.
In Riga, the two parties adopted a joint declaration on matters such as inland security, with the EU and the United States calling for a reinforcement of legal cooperation. Tackling networks of smugglers of migrants and cyber-crime were also discussed. The meeting also provided the opportunity for the European leaders to meet the new Attorney General of the United States, Loretta Lynch, who was on her first official visit to meet the two European leaders since she took over from Eric Holder. (Solenn Paulic)