EU threatening to freeze arrangements with US

The most important story of the day in Data IT Law is the reaction of European Commission on the decrease in the level of trust in the area of data protection.

Citing from the Official Press Release:

The Commission’s response today takes the form of 

(1) a strategy paper (a Communication) on transatlantic data flows setting out the challenges and risks following the revelations of U.S. intelligence collection programmes, as well as the steps that need to be taken to address these concerns; 

(2) an analysis of the functioning of ‘Safe Harbour’ which regulates data transfers for commercial purposes between the EU and U.S.; and 

(3) a report on the findings of the EU-US Working Group (see MEMO/13/1059) on Data Protection which was set up in July 2013. In addition, the European Commission is also presenting its review of the existing agreements on Passenger Name Records (PNR) (see MEMO/13/1054) and the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) regulating data exchanges in these sectors for law enforcement purposes.

The reaction was also widely commented by significant media (here or here). Data & IT law would keep you updated of these developments.