EU Lawmakers See Welcome Progress on EU-U.S. Privacy Talks
The U.S. administration and Congress sent a "clear signal ... they really want to deliver on privacy," Jan Philipp Albrecht, a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from the Greens/European Free Alliance group and Germany, said in an interview. Albrecht, who headed a delegation from the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) Committee to Washington last month, and several of his colleagues told us they're seeing progress on several privacy-related issues, including safe harbor data transfers to the U.S., intelligence-gathering and, most importantly, legal redress for EU residents whose data is abused by U.S. law enforcement and security services. But MEP Marju Lauristin of the Socialists and Democrats and Estonia said the U.S.'s "active interest" in solving data protection issues as quickly as possible could be sidetracked by the 2016 elections.
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LIBE's March 16-19 trip to Washington was to obtain updated information on the status of data protection and legislation on surveillance activities, the committee said. The pivotal concern for the European Parliament is giving Europeans whose data is sent to the U.S. for law enforcement purposes the same right of judicial redress as Americans have, it said. This is "one of the last remaining barriers" to an EU-U.S. "umbrella agreement" that would govern the movement of personal data from the EU to the U.S. for crime and terrorism prevention and prosecution, it said.
Among others, MEPs met with Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., who, with Rep. John Conyers, D-Mich., introduced the Judicial Redress Act of 2015 (HR-1428) March 18. It would extend to citizens of major U.S. allies the same core benefits that Americans have under the Privacy Act with regard to information shared with the U.S. for law enforcement purposes, Sensenbrenner said in a March 18 statement. Making those rights available to Europeans will help build trust in the fight against terrorism, boost intelligence-gathering, and protect civil liberties in the U.S. and abroad, he said.
The lawmaker has had positive conversations with the EU and business community, Sensenbrenner's communications director told us. He cited a strong push from the White House, Department of Justice and Department of Commerce for the measure, and said Sensenbrenner is trying to educate others on why the bill is needed. The congressman is encouraged by the reception the bill has received, isn't seeing any opposition to it, and is optimistic, the spokesman said.
The U.S. appears willing to enact European Commission safe harbor recommendations, said MEP Axel Voss, of the European People's Party and Germany. Recommendations on the commercial side of data transfers are probably more agreeable to both sides, he said. Two recommendations on access to personal data by U.S. authorities remain unresolved and likely will be more complicated, he said in an interview.
MEPs also met officials from the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, Executive Director Sharon Bradford Franklin said in an interview. Talks centered on 2014 PCLOB reports on the surveillance program carried out under Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act and on the telephone records program conducted under Section 215 of the USA Patriot Act and the operations of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, she said. They also discussed Presidential Policy Directive 28, which orders the intelligence community to increase protections for non-U.S. persons in their signal intelligence program, Bradford Franklin said. PCLOB has been asked to assess how the directive is working, she said.
The two sides are making progress on mutual understanding by being open to each other's approaches while not compromising on their own systems, Voss said. They agree the U.S. puts too much emphasis on security issues and the EU on privacy, so there should be a common path, he said. But there must be "political will for this," he said.
One key issue is trust, Lauristin said. The trip turned up some interesting insights, she said, such as the FTC's enthusiasm for safe harbor. The agency offered concrete examples of how it's pushing U.S. companies to sign up for the voluntary program, she said. All of the MEPs said they saw progress this time, Lauristin told us: "The ice is melting." But the progress is tied to the U.S. election cycle, and if these issues aren't resolved before then it's difficult to see how they will play out afterward, she said.
These are "very significant steps" but "we are not concluding this debate" yet, Albrecht said. The European Parliament will adopt a resolution at its May plenary that stresses some key notions, he said. One will be that as long as there's no significant improvement for EU rights in data transfers, safe harbor can't remain in place, he added.