Tag: US-EU Safe Harbor Agreement

Following years of controversy, the Safe Harbor will now have to face the Court of Justice of the European Union. Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems filed a case in Irish court against Facebook was referred to the Court of Justice to examine the legality of the agreement with E.U. law.

To help bridge the substantial differences in how user privacy is protected on the two sides of the Atlantic, the Safe Harbor was established to enable U.S. companies to lawfully transfer data without running afoul of EU data protection law. To make use of the Safe Harbor, companies voluntarily adhere to a set of principles, with oversight from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), though to date enforcement of corporate policies and practices has been limited.

In the 12th and 13th hearings held by the committee for civil liberties (LIBE), Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) presented their first conclusions and working documents after having conducted eleven inquiry meetings on the mass-surveillance programmes. The LIBE committee will then use theses conclusions and documents as basis to put forward recommendations aimed at preventing further violations of fundamental rights, and ensuring credible, high-level protection of EU citizens’ personal data via adequate means, in particular the adoption of a fully-fledged data protection package.

In the 6th hearing held by the committee, the MEPs focused on the all-important Safe Harbour provisions, investigating whether personal data of E.U. citizens transferred to U.S. under the arrangements had received adequate legal protection.

On September 5th, the LIBE Committee held the first of a series of hearings as part of the inquiry on “Electronic Mass Surveillance of EU Citizen”s established on July 10 by the Libe Committee. The purpose of this inquiry is to investigate into the NSA and other surveillance programmes, and examine whether those programmes are compatible with EU law.