The European Commission and the United States announced that they had reached an agreement in principle on a new transatlantic data protection framework at the European Summit in Brussels on Friday 25 March. This, the European Commission said in a press release, will facilitate data flows between the two parties and should address the concerns raised by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Schrems II judgment of July 2020 (see EUROPE 12536/9).
“Today, we have agreed to unprecedented protections for the privacy and security of citizens”, said US President Joe Biden at a joint press conference with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
“I am very pleased that we have reached an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows”, said Ursula von der Leyen. “This will allow predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and the US, preserving privacy and civil liberties”, she added, remaining relatively tight-lipped on details.
On the US side, under the future framework announced on Friday, Washington will have to put in place new safeguards on the balance between respecting limits on surveillance activities and “necessary and proportionate” surveillance activities.
Legal teams on both sides of the Atlantic will now have to work on translating this transatlantic data protection framework onto paper. The commitments made by Washington will be included in a decree, the European Commission said, which will then be used as the basis for a potential future adequacy decision.
The Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) ruled on 16 July 2020 to invalidate the ‘Privacy Shield’ between the EU and the US, following a complaint by Austrian lawyer and activist Max Schrems. He felt that his personal data was less protected once it was transferred across the Atlantic (see EUROPE 12529/2). In 2015, Mr Schrems obtained the cancellation of Safe Harbor, the successor to the ‘Privacy Shield’.
“The final text will need more time. Once it arrives, we will analyse it in depth, together with our American legal experts. If it does not comply with European law, we or another group will probably challenge it”, reacted Austrian activist Max Schrems. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)