On Thursday 9 June, the Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs of the EU Member States discussed data protection in the context of international transfers.
On this occasion, the European Commission gave a lunchtime update on the discussions with the US on the regulatory reforms needed to adopt a new adequacy decision for the transfer of personal data.
The European Commission announced on 25 March that it had reached an agreement in principle with the United States on a new transatlantic framework for data protection (see EUROPE 12919/11).
As a reminder, these discussions come after the EU Court of Justice overturned the two previous adequacy decisions following actions brought by Austrian lawyer and activist Max Schrems (see EUROPE 12536/9).
Following the Commission’s comments, the ministers reviewed the priorities in terms of the safeguards required to ensure that this future adequacy decision is in line with EU standards and law.
More broadly, the ministers then discussed the issue of the transfer of personal data in a global manner, considering this prospect as a major strategic challenge, and were invited to reflect on a “coherent and ambitious” European policy. (Original version in French by Thomas Mangin)