At the EU-U.S. Justice and Home Affairs Ministerial Meeting, European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder released a joint statement highlighting their “determination to finalize negotiations on a comprehensive EU-U.S. data privacy and protection agreement that provides a high level of privacy protection for all individuals and thereby facilitates the exchange of data needed to fight crime and terrorism.” They stated that such an agreement would allow for even closer transatlantic cooperation, which would assist in any subsequent agreements concerning the sharing of a specific set of personal data. Progress has already been made on important principles such as data security, transparency of data processing and data protection oversight and they plan to continue negotiations and revisit these items at the 2013 ministerial meeting.
