29/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - Transatlantic data protection. On Friday 29 April, the European Commission put the proposal to the Council of Ministers of the EU that an EU-US data protection framework agreement be signed and concluded. This agreement was finalised with the United States in September of last year and puts in place a data protection framework for all legal and police cooperation sectoral agreements, both existing and future, such as the EU-US PNR, for example. Once the agreement is signed, it will have to be adopted by the Council and the European Parliament. In an initial assessment in February, many MEPs were of the view that the text does not comply with European fundamental rights (see EUROPE 11499). An opinion by the Parliament's legal services said it breached European law in several areas. (SP)