On 2 June, at a EU-US Ministerial Meeting on justice and home affairs issues in Amsterdam, the EU (represented by the Dutch Presidency of the Council and by the Commissioner Jourová) and the US (represented by Attorney General Loretta Lynch) signed the Umbrella Agreement. This agreement introduces a robust data protection framework into existing and future deals regarding data transfers for law enforcement purposes. Among others, it attributes to EU citizens the same rights as the US citizens have in judicial redress procedures. However, it does not in itself authorize any new data transfers. Before the Agreement can enter into force, the European Parliament will need to give its consent.

The commercial data transfers framework in the making, the EU-US Privacy Shield, should be up and running in the beginning of July, according to Commissioner Jourová. Although national data protection supervisors, as well as the European Parliament (which however has no formal competence in the matter), pointed out some weak spots of the almost-ready deal, Commissioner Jourová indicated it is not necessary to fully re-open the negotiations. She conceded, though, that some minor aspects may be altered to please the national regulators. However, it should in no way endanger the deadline (beginning of July).

For more, click here and here (in Czech).