Amendments to adequacy decisions and decisions on European Model Clauses?

25. October 2016

After a meeting of the Article 31 Committee, the European Commission disclosed two drafts concerning the implementation of amendments to the existing adequacy decisions and decisions on EU Model Clauses.

First of all, adequacy decisions determine whether a third country provides adequate safeguards in order to protect personal data. These decisions are made by the Commission after an assessment of the national laws and international commitments in terms of data protection of the respective country. In the following, countries which are established to be adequate are added to the Commission’s “white list”. Therefore, data transfers can be made from the EEA to that country without any further legal requirements.

The opinion concerning these amendments is divided. Some European Member States which participated at the Article 31 Committee meeting were for implemnting theses amendments. However, other European Member States requested more time in order to consider the proposed changes.

Due to this conflict another meeting has to be scheduled to which the  Article 29 Working Party will be aksed to contribute by presenting its views on the respective changes.