On Monday 7 June, the Ministers of the EU Member States, meeting in the Justice Council, called on the European Commission to negotiate - and move forward - quickly with the United States on personal data transfers.
“The Ministers stressed that a solution is needed to achieve legal certainty on the transfer of personal data as soon as possible. A robust and legally sound solution is needed with the United States”, explained Portuguese Justice Minister Francisca Van Dunem.
“It is important that EU operators find alternatives and provide guidance to make such data transfers legal. It needs to be watertight. We cannot afford a Schrems III ruling”, she added.
“We cannot tinker; we have to fully respect the requirements as defined by the Court of Justice of the EU (CJEU) in the Schrems II ruling”, acknowledged EU Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders.
On 16 July 2020, the CJEU invalidated the EU-US data protection shield (see EUROPE 12529/2), finding that US surveillance programmes were not sufficiently regulated to provide limits and guarantees to non-US citizens.
The Court also ruled that the system did not provide an adequate remedy and did not give EU citizens rights that could be enforced against US authorities in court. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)