Data protection agreement under attack from MEPs

Date: 29/06/2000

By Peter Chapman

MEPS are expected to pour scorn on the agreement struck by the European Commission with the US to end a long-running dispute over data privacy when they meet in Strasbourg next week.

The accord, clinched earlier this year by Commission single market negotiators and their US counterparts, will allow American companies to access personal information about EU citizens provided they sign up to a strict code of conduct policed by US authorities.

Union recognition of this 'safe harbour' scheme was vital because the EU's new data protection directive allows member states to block data exports to countries which do not have similar rules guaranteeing that such information is not misused.

But MEPs are expected to call for extra safeguards to be added, such as giving citizens the right of access to an effective system of redress via an appeal to an independent public body specifically set up to examine cases of alleged breaches of the safe harbour scheme.

The European Parliament's demands for changes to the agreement reflect concerns that the dispute mechanism foreseen in the current accord would be operated by private bodies chosen by firms processing data, and cases would only be handled by the US' overworked Federal Trade Commission in the "last instance".

The report by Italian Socialist MEP Elena Ornella Paciotti due to be voted on by the Parliament next week also calls on the Commission to check whether the safe harbour scheme is working properly six months after it enters into force.

Commission sources said this week that they expected Christian Democrat MEPs to table amendments slightly softening the assembly's stance. These are likely to highlight many deficiencies in the deal, but stop short of calling for the safe harbour scheme to be changed before the agreement is implemented.

However, any demands for future changes to the EU-US deal could still bring Single Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein into conflict with MEPs.

Under the terms of the directive, the EU executive is under no obligation to heed the Parliament's views, but Commission insiders say they are reluctant to ignore the assembly's opinions completely. "The Commission does not want to shelter behind procedural things," said one.

However, they also insist that the WEU executive has little room for manoeuvre, arguing that the US is unlikely to agree to add extra caveats to the hard-fought deal. They also point out that the agreement has already been approved unanimously by member states' data protection experts. "It is difficult to back track now," said one.

MEPs are expected to pour scorn on the agreement struck by the European Commission with the US to end a long-running dispute over data privacy at their forthcoming meeting in Strasbourg.