Abstract
The European Parliament plays a crucial role in transatlantic relations in a number of ways: as an institution directly engaging in political dialogue, in the negotiation of international agreements and in scrutinising key dossiers at committee level. The LIBE committee has relevant competence in the areas of law enforcement, data protection and migration and carries out these responsibilities via annual missions, own-initiative reports, hearings and scrutinising ongoing dossiers such as the Umbrella Agreement, data protection issues affecting transatlantic relations and US visa waiver programme reform. The chapter provides an update on these issues, in addition to other key transatlantic agreements such as the EU–USA PNR agreement, the new data protection reform package, the Privacy Shield, the Umbrella Agreement and the TFTP.
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Notes
- 1.
2013/2188INI Draft Report on US NSA Surveillance (8.1.2014) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-%2F%2FEP%2F%2FNONSGML%2BCOMPARL%2BPE-526.085%2B02%2BDOC%2BPDF%2BV0%2F%2FEN.
- 2.
EU-US ‘Privacy Shield’: MEPs to examine new deal on transatlantic data transfers (17.3.2016) http://www.europarl.europa.eu/news/en/news-room/20160316IPR19663/eu-us-%E2%80%9Cprivacy-shield%E2%80%9D-meps-to-examine-new-deal-on-transatlantic-data-transfers.
- 3.
E.g. Joint Hearings of the INTA and LIBE Committees 16-06-2015—Trade agreements and data flows: Safeguarding the EU data protection standards.
- 4.
On 2 June 2016, EU-U.S. Justice and Home Affairs Ministers formerly signed the ‘Umbrella Agreement’.
- 5.
On 2 March, the European Parliament adopted a non-binding resolution calling the European Commission to suspend visa exemption for nationals of third countries that do not grant a reciprocal visa waiver to citizens of all EU Member States. Under the Article 265 TFEU, the Commission was obliged to define its position on the matter within 2 months. See the response of the Commission: Visa Reciprocity: Commission responds to Parliament Brussels, 2 May 2017.
- 6.
Commission Implementing Decision (EU) 2016/1250 of 12 July 2016 pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council on the adequacy of the protection provided by the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield (notified under document C(2016) 4176).
- 7.
Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and Transfer of Financial Messaging data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (hereafter TFTP), OJ L 195.
- 8.
- 9.
See further: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/us/en/.
- 10.
See Agreement between the United States of America and the European Union on the use and transfer of Passenger Name Record Data to the United States Department of Homeland Security of 17 November 2011; COM (2011) 807 final, approved by the European Parliament in April 2012 (hereafter EU-US PNR).
- 11.
EU-US Joint Action Plan 1995 http://eeas.europa.eu/archives/docs/us/docs/joint_eu_us_action_plan_95_en.pdf.
- 12.
Directive (EU) 2016/681 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime.
- 13.
European Parliament resolution of 11 November 2010 on the global approach to transfers of passenger name record (PNR) data to third countries, and on the recommendations from the Commission to the Council to authorise the opening of negotiations between the European Union and Australia, Canada and the United States.
- 14.
See European Parliament v Council of the European Union (C-317/04) and Commission of the European Communities (C-318/04) ECLI:EU:C:2006:346.
- 15.
Proposal for a Council Decision on the conclusion of the Agreement between Canada and the European Union on the transfer and processing of Passenger Name Record Data (COM(2013) 528 final). The agreement between the EU and Canada was signed on 25 June 2014 and the Council requested the European Parliament’s consent to it on 8 July 2014. The decision to refer it to the Court was taken on 25 November 2014. Opinion 1/15 ECLI:EU:C:2016:656.
- 16.
Directive (EU) 2016/681 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the use of passenger name record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime.
- 17.
See Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Directive 95/46/EC (General Data Protection Regulation); Directive (EU) 2016/680 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 27 April 2016 on the protection of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data by competent authorities for the purposes of the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of criminal offences or the execution of criminal penalties, and on the free movement of such data, and repealing Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA. See also http://ec.europa.eu/justice/data-protection/reform/index_en.htm.
- 18.
Case C-362/14 Schrems v Data Commissioner, EU:C:2015:650.
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Moraes, C. (2018). The European Parliament and Transatlantic Relations: Personal Reflections. In: Fahey, E. (eds) Institutionalisation beyond the Nation State. Studies in European Economic Law and Regulation, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50221-2_2
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