The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs (LIBE) holds a hearing on transatlantic data protection issues, in the European Parliament in Brussels.

Brussels

Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs

public hearing

IN 'T VELD, Sophia (Renew, NL)

protection of personal data (T)

SWIFT (T)

ALBRECHT, Jan Philipp (Greens/EFA, DE)

KENNARD, William E. (US)

DE CLERCK, Stefaan (BE)

Data Protection in a Transatlantic Perspective: extracts from the public hearing

SOUNDBITE (English), Sophia IN&apos;T VELD (ALDE, NL), he unique thing about this session is that for years we have talked about transatlantic cooperation on matters of security and now we are going to do the other side of the coin, transatlantic cooperation on protecting of civil rights, this is therefore a unique opportunity.

SOUNDBITE (English), Fran&#231;oise LE BAIL, Director General DG Justice, European Commission, What is essential for us is to understand that although sharing information is critical to national security and law enforcement authorities, we don't see security and privacy as being contradictory in terms; this is a very important starting point, and also what has been the idea behind the proposal that we have put forward.

SOUNDBITE (English), Fran&#231;oise LE BAIL, Director General DG Justice, European Commission, The future agreement should establish an umbrella which shall apply to the relevant existing agreements between the EU and between member states and the US and set out obligations for data controllers... We all know that this challenging, we are not underestimating the difficulty but this is also necessary if we want to eliminate what is an obstacle in transatlantic relations.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Stefaan DE CLERCK, on behalf of the Council, We must keep being realistic and we shouldn't forget that a general EU-US agreement on data protection will never be able to cover all cases, there is no universal panacea for every case imaginable. There will always be situations which will require specific agreements by sector.

SOUNDBITE (Dutch), Stefaan DE CLERCK, on behalf of the Council, The citizen must have access to their own data and the citizen must have the possibility to see their data corrected if necessary and it should be helped by the competent authorities. The citizens must be able to take this before the Court.

SOUNDBITE (English), William E. KENNARD, US Ambassador to the EU, I've head many times the often repeated assertion that the US cares more about security and less about privacy than Europeans. This is simply not true, it is a stereotype, it is a caricature and it is not accurate. United States as a nation is committed by its very foundation in defending individual liberties.

SOUNDBITE (English), William E. KENNARD, US Ambassador to the EU, We are concerned when we hear that this new agreement will apply retroactively which would mean that all of these (previous) agreements, hundreds of them, some of them which have been ratified by our Senate would have to be abrogated, re-opened, re-negotiated. We think that just as a practical matter, a logistical matter, this would take several years if not decades to re-negotiate all these agreements and we rather look forward.

SOUNDBITE (English), William E. KENNARD, US Ambassador to the EU, We should have a clear statement of mutual recognition of our respective privacy regimes. To use the EU term, the 'adequacy' of our privacy regimes; because without such legal effect the added value of such an umbrella agreement would not be maximised.

SOUNDBITE (English), Jan Philipp ALBRECHT (Greens/EFA, DE), rapporteur, He asks the US Ambassador about the concerns of the EP regarding the need to re-think the existing frameworks.