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Torsdagen den 6 april 2017 - Strasbourg

8.4. Tillräckligheten avseende det skydd som säkerställs genom skölden för skydd av privatlivet i EU och USA (B8-0235/2017, B8-0244/2017)

Oral explanations of vote

  Seán Kelly (PPE). – Mr President, along with other members of my group I voted against the committee’s report on the adequacy of protection afforded by the EU/US Privacy Shield in favour of supporting the alternative text tabled by the EPP and the ECR. The committee report contains very critical statements that I believe could potentially harm businesses that rely on the Privacy Shield to transfer data across the Atlantic securely and efficiently.

This criticism comes before the upcoming comprehensive annual review which is envisaged in the Privacy Shield framework, which ensures that the European Commission and data protection authorities can monitor the functioning of the system and keep it up to date, and so the claims in the report are therefore premature. The EPP/ECR text better acknowledges this upcoming inclusive review and is more balanced in its critique of the Safe Harbour system which has not changed in the time since the EPP resolution of May 2016, which welcomed the substantial improvements in the Privacy Shield compared with Safe Harbour. This allows the comprehensive review to take place and assess the findings afterwards.

  Lucy Anderson (S&D). – Mr President, in fact for many years the European Parliament has been at the forefront of efforts to protect citizens from the abuse of their personal data, so I was therefore very pleased to vote for this important resolution on improving the EU/US Privacy Shield, and I do not agree that it is a burden on business. This is not just a matter of human rights, it is also a matter of consumer confidence, and there are very real concerns about the scope of the protection within this agreement. It is better than the US Safe Harbour protections, but there are concerns about the use of data through automatic decision-making, and there are concerns about the remedies that will be available to EU citizens if there is a problem. So it is absolutely right that Parliament has taken a firm stand here. I also think that the Commission should have allowed Parliament to scrutinise this in a better way, because the use of the Implementing Act procedure in this particular instance has not worked out to our advantage. But overall I am extremely pleased with this resolution, and it enables us to take forward our work in this area.

  President. – That concludes the explanations of vote.