ELDR Focus Year

Today the European commission will propose a mandate for the negotiation of a new comprehensive data protection agreement between the European Union and the United States of America.

LYMEC President Alexander Plahr states: “We welcome that the Commission proposes a new agreement that aims to define clear transatlantic framework conditions for data protection that in the future will then have to be respected on both sides of the Atlantic. It is a reality that many companies handling data by EU citizens are located in the United States and thus can be influenced by European politics regarding their way of handling their customers’ data only in the form of such common agreements.

At the same time, it must be clear that those regulations, are they meant to be credible, have to also apply to state-actors. The Commission already had to learn the hard way in the SWIFT case that Parliament opposes any sellout of our privacy. We must not treat our citizens as suspects, but as individuals that have rights. And we believe that the protection of ones privacy is a fundamental right.”

LYMEC bureau member Jeroen Diepemaat adds: “The new agreement will establish a set of rights and obligations for citizens, companies and public authorities in the European Union and the United States. We want clear frameworks and limits in this agreement to protect the privacy rights of citizens in every single case and in all circumstances. We don't want the United States to use the fight against terrorism as an argument to neglect this agreement.”

Plahr concludes: “We expect that the European Commission will follow the democratic wish of the European parliament. The fundamental right of privacy is a right that has to be protected, not something that has to be sold out.”