U.S.-EU Digital Policy Partnership Strong Despite Brexit, Officials Say
The U.K.’s vote last week in favor of leaving the EU won’t change the fundamentals of EU digital policy or the trans-Atlantic partnership with the U.S. on digital issues, said European Commission Director General-Communications Networks, Content and Technology Roberto Viola during a Computer and Communications Industry Association event Monday. Industry officials said both before and after the U.K.’s Thursday referendum that Brexit would have implications for EU negotiations on trans-Atlantic data flows and IT-related trade agreements (see 1606240021), and potential effects for European telecoms (see 1606220001). U.S. and EU officials are to meet this week at the annual U.S.-EU Information Society Dialogue despite Brexit uncertainty. The ISD typically addresses a range of information and communication technology issues, including the digital economy.
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The ISD will include discussions on the EU digital single market and Internet governance issues, Viola said at the CCIA event. Viola is to represent the EU at the high-level ISD, while State Deputy Assistant Secretary-Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs Daniel Sepulveda is to represent the U.S. “The discussions we’ll have this week [at the ISD] are a high priority for us,” said State Senior Deputy Coordinator-International Communication and Information Policy Julie Zoller. Officials from the FCC, Department of Commerce and the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative were also to attend ISD.
The trans-Atlantic Privacy Shield data transfer agreement has the “strong privacy protections that the EU’s legal system requires,” said State Digital Economy Director Alan Davidson. The final agreement announced Friday included a White House commitment that U.S. bulk data collection in the EU would be limited to specific instances and would be narrowly targeted. The deal also requires companies to delete personal data when the companies no longer need it for its intended purpose, and finalizes a U.S. commitment to create an ombudsman position to field EU citizens’ complaints about U.S. privacy violations.
Privacy Shield “hasn’t crossed the finish line” yet “but we are confident we have a plan that will meet criteria of EU courts,” Davidson said. It requires ratification in EU member states, but if that occurs, it could take effect as soon as next month. U.S. negotiators “worked hard” to reach a deal with EU officials, Zoller said. A Privacy Shield deal became all the more important after Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner said last month it would ask the European Court of Justice (ECJ) to determine the legal status of data transfers made via standard contractual clauses, said Facebook Vice President-Global Public Policy Joel Kaplan. Facebook and others had relied on the use of standard contractual clauses as a way of continuing data transfers in the EU after the ECJ invalidated the previous U.S.-EU safe harbor in October (see 1510050045), Kaplan said.
The U.S. and EU are “where real digital change evolves” and that still will be the case if Brexit occurs as planned, Viola said: The EU hopes the U.K. will be able to resolve the legal issues involved in Brexit “as soon as possible, but it will take time.” State believes its partnership with the EU and nonmember European states on digital issues remains “strong and collaborative” despite Brexit, Zoller said. The results of the Brexit referendum make clear that the people who voted to leave the EU have some “legitimate grievances” about globalization that the ICT sector should address, CCIA President Ed Black said. “If these forces get out of control, they will harm” sector interests related to innovation and civil liberties, he said.
Zoller said U.S. and EU officials have a “rich agenda” of ICT issues for the rest of 2016, including collaborative work on their policy positions for the ITU World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly and the Internet Governance Forum. WTSA runs Oct. 25-Nov. 3 in Yasmine Hammamet, Tunisia, and the IGF is Dec. 6-9 in Guadalajara, Mexico. The U.S. and EU also partnered on policy issues at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development’s Ministerial on the Digital Economy last week in Cancun, Mexico, Zoller said. OECD members agreed on a declaration supporting free data flows, strong data privacy protections, multistakeholder Internet governance and increasing broadband connectivity. U.S. commitment to the Cancun Declaration must include allowing the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority transition to proceed as planned, Davidson said. “That’s a difficult thing to do” for any government, “but it shows we are committed to these principles,” he said.