Agreement on data streams across the Atlantic.
(Photo: REUTERS)
Brussels The data of European citizens should again be allowed to be stored in the USA without any problems. US President Joe Biden and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced this after their meeting on Friday, which also discussed the delivery of gas to Europe.
Due to rulings by the European Court of Justice (ECJ), data flows are currently not actually possible, and companies have to work with emergency legal solutions. The ECJ is concerned that data in the USA can be read by secret services, which is not permitted under European data protection standards.
Biden said that on the basis of the new agreement, the EU Commission could allow the flow of data again. He spoke of $7.1 trillion in economic ties unleashed. “We create a balance between security, the right to privacy and data protection,” said von der Leyen.
How this is supposed to work is an open question. In circles of the EU Commission it is said that there are still tasks to be solved, but the agreement is an important step.
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Biden emphasized that “privacy and security are key elements of my digital agenda.” This could be an indication of how the dilemma could now be solved, namely by concessions by the US to better protect Europeans’ data. It would be possible for EU citizens to sue the United States against the spying on their data, or for another point of contact in the US government to be used.
Two attempts at agreement have so far failed
After it became known in 2013 how intensively the US secret services such as the NSA research data, the EU and the USA had already tried twice to legally secure the data flows with an agreement. Both attempts failed in court.
>> Read here: This is Joe Biden’s blueprint for the future of the internet
For the economy, this means billions in risks. Not only IT companies are affected, but practically all companies that rely on cloud applications. You face high penalties from data protection authorities.
“Restricting or preventing data transfers is at least as serious for German and European companies as blocking the physical flow of goods,” explained Rebekka Weiß from the digital association Bitkom.
“Also, and especially smaller companies, are dependent on the storage of data in the cloud, the use of software from US providers and communication in social networks and the use of video conferencing systems from international providers.” She now called for a “resilient legal regulation”.
>> Read here: Why Meta doesn’t shut down Instagram and Facebook despite threats
“Legal security in relation to data traffic will boost innovation, growth and job creation,” said Markus Beyrer, Director General of Businesseurope.
Individual cloud providers such as Microsoft now offer to store data only in the EU. The meta group, on the other hand, has already threatened to exclude Europeans from its Facebook and Instagram networks. Because the basic problem could not be solved by the previous agreements: the USA did not want to restrict its secret services, the EU is bound by law to a high level of data protection.
The war in Ukraine may have brought the EU and the US closer together. “In view of the geopolitical situation, close transatlantic cooperation is vital,” said FDP MEP Moritz Körner.
However, he warned: “The new data agreement must be fully compatible with the case law of the ECJ. It must not again be a degree at the expense of the fundamental rights of European citizens. That is why the details of the agreement are also important.”
More on this: Bitkom President warns: The lack of a data protection agreement with the USA “will massively damage the German economy.”