On 29 February 2016, the European Commission published a draft adequacy decision to establish the EU-U.S. Privacy Shield, the replacement for the invalidated Safe Harbor program that previously allowed transfers of personal data between the European Union and certified organizations in the United States. The Article 29 Working Party (the WP), the regulatory body in Brussels representing the national data protection agencies, was asked to give its opinion.
The critique of the WP, released in a long “opinion” of 54 pages on April 13, was quite harsh: The publication of the draft adequacy decision was initially welcomed by the WP, which advises the European Commission on data protection matters.
Of Counsel Axel Spies authored this commentary for the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies (AICGS).