Report: EU close to data sharing deal with US

The EU and United States should reach agreement next month on a new framework to replace the Safe Harbour pact enabling data transfers from Europe to the United States, European Justice Commissioner Vera Jourova told a newspaper.

Brussels and Washington are locked in negotiations to forge a new agreement for the transfer of data, which would otherwise be subject to cumbersome and lengthy legal processes under EU data protection law.

Safe Harbour, which was used by more than 4,000 US and European companies, was declared invalid by the European Court of Justice in October because US national security needs trumped the privacy of Europeans’ data.

“We have to build a bridge between our data protection authorities and those of the USA and put it into a legally binding text,” Jourova told Austrian newspaper Wirtschaftsblatt.

“We should manage that by the next meeting on December 17.”

To address the court’s concerns, particularly that Europeans do not have legal channels to challenge misuse of their data, the Commission is looking for ways to involve European privacy watchdogs more deeply, Jourova said.

“The main problem is the responsibilities of the European data protection authorities and of the U.S. counterpart, the Federal Trade Commission: they should implement the requirements and deal with the complaints of citizens,” she said.

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) was responsible for monitoring companies’ compliance with the Safe Harbour privacy principles, although it does not deal with complaints from individuals. A bigger role for European watchdogs would allow citizens to complain to their national authorities, people familiar with the matter said last week.