Safety Of US-EU Safe Harbor Given Boost

Following months of uncertainty about the future of the EU-U.S. Safe Harbor Framework, political leaders from the EU and the United States reiterated their commitment to the regime in a joint statement issued 26 March (the Statement).

EU-U.S. Safe Harbor is designed to essentially transpose EU data protection law into U.S. law so that organisations certified to the program are deemed to adequately protect personal data transferred from the EU to them in the United States. 

The future of the Safe Harbor regime was cast into doubt last year, following Edward Snowden's revelations about the extent of NSA information gathering. In November 2013, the European Commission released a Strategy Paper which noted that "the current implementation of Safe Harbor cannot be maintained." In particular, the paper pointed to shortcomings in transparency, enforcement and the use of the national security exception.