EU Parliament - NSA Spying: Safe Harbour - US companies benefit from agreement as it comes under Parliamentary threat

The 'Safe Harbour' agreement allowing ease of data transfers by US and EU companies should be scrapped pending a more rigorous data umbrella agreement between the two in the wake of the NSA scandal, an influential parliamentary report will recommend.

British MEP Claude Moraes (Socialists and Democrats) told the press yesterday (17 December) that his report for the European Parliament's civil liberties committee on mass surveillance will make the recommendation when the group meets in January, with a view to being put through at a plenary session in February 2014.

Moraes was speaking at a joint press conference with a US delegation led by Mike Rogers, the chairman of the US House of Representatives’ permanent select committee on intelligence, which drew fierce criticism from the US lawmaker for the decision by the Parliament to call testimony from Edward Snowden.

The process allows US companies to transfer personal data of EU citizens to the US, but requires that such companies self-certify before the US Department of Commerce that they meet EU requirements for privacy and protection of personal data.

Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon, and many other US companies are part of the Safe Harbour compliance programme, enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.

The joint EU-US press conference marked a step backwards following recent efforts to smooth relations in the wake of the NSA scandal . “We are very discontent with the Safe Harbour agreement and believe that it should be suspended and we should adopt the data protection umbrella package in 2014 with protections for EU citizens in respect of the NSA surveillance,” said Moraes.

Speaking afterwards Dutch MEP Sophie in t’Veld of the Alliance for Liberals and Democrats for Europe hit back at the US delegation for its attitude towards Snowden. She said that – during the private meetings – the US delegation had referred to Snowden as a traitor and criminal.

“The problem here is that it does not give one confidence that he would be treated fairly if he returned to the US for trial. The decision on whether Snowden should give evidence before the European Parliament is one for the parliament to take, not this US delegation,” she added.

Even though there is a Safe Harbour agreement between the US and EU, which includes a provision whereby all data of a person traveling to the US is forwarded to the US in advance, EU Citizens arriving in the US are still exposed to the humiliation of being finger printed and having their picture taken . US Citizens, however, are not given a similar treatment when arriving in the European Union.

The European Union better scrap the Safe Harbour treaty or at least make it more fairly balanced. 

Read more: Data 'Safe Harbour' under threat as US castigates EU Parliament over Snowden | EurActiv