Sarah's speech on the provisions in the new treaty on the supply of personal data of EU citizens to third countries

Speech by Sarah Ludford MEP delivered to European Parliament on Tue 13th Nov 2007

Sarah Ludford:

"Commissioner Frattini, you are of course well aware that Members of this Parliament, and especially members of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs, are getting more, not less, unhappy about developments in data transfer without adequate data protection and without any codecision or real parliamentary scrutiny, including by national parliaments. Also, I am afraid there is a little bit of loss of trust, because we are feeling that the Commission and Member States are almost benefiting from loose and lax agreements reached on the transatlantic dimension."

"What can you do to reassure us that we are not on a slippery slope, where data transferred for security purposes is really just going to be used for profiling and never really going to benefit from privacy guarantees?"

Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the Commission:

"As you know perfectly well, I have tried to undertake in the past personal initiatives under a political point of view, even though in some cases I was not formally authorised by the Council to do that. I am talking about putting at your disposal some documents, elements or information, without previous formal consultation with the Council."

"I understand perfectly your concerns. But I cannot act alone. I had to get authorisation in some cases and consensus in some other cases. I can repeat to you what I said once to the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. I am ready to engage with Parliament in a political process of close consultation, although the Treaty is not yet signed or ratified. I am talking about a political consultation in the sense that we can think about moving ahead as if the Treaty were in force. That is, frankly speaking, my political and personal position because I am not so sure, and I do not know, whether the Council would be in agreement with such a position.

This principle could apply, for example, to the adoption of a framework decision on data protection which should be adopted, in my view, before December, after close consultation, not only by getting just an opinion by Parliament but by taking into full account amendments, proposals and formal and substantial integration."