Three months. According to a letter disclosed by The Financial Times on 30 July addressed to the US Secretary of State for Trade, Wilbur Ross, from the Commissioner for Justice, Věra Jourová, this is the deadline that the European Commission has given to the US authorities to comply with the Privacy Shield provisions.
It should be recalled that the Privacy Shield is a mechanism that allows more than 3,350 US and European businesses to freely transfer information, such as images and messages, from European and US citizens from one side of the Atlantic to the other. It replaces the Safe Harbour mechanism, which was invalidated by the Court of Justice of the EU.
In her letter, Věra Jourová deplores the fact that the White House has still not appointed any senior staff to supervise the agreement or a permanent independent mediator. In this context, she is urging the US to take action before October, when Mr Ross visits Brussels and the European Commission carries out its second examination of the agreement.
It should be pointed out that on 5 July the European Parliament adopted a resolution concluding that the Privacy Shield provided an insufficient level of protection for European citizens and called for the mechanism to be suspended unless the US fully complied with it by 1 September 2018 (see EUROPE 12056). (Original version in French by Sophie Petitjean)