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EU data protection standards and cooperation agreements with third countries: the case of EU-US relations in the area of freedom, security and justice

Schmachtenberg, Lisa (2012) EU data protection standards and cooperation agreements with third countries: the case of EU-US relations in the area of freedom, security and justice.

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Abstract:Over the last years, it became apparent that threats to security have become increasingly transnational in nature. Thus in order to ‘prevent, detect, suppress and investigate these threats as well as other criminal offences’1 the European Union (hereafter: EU) and also its agencies started to conclude agreements on data sharing with third countries, including the United States of America (hereafter: US). However, data sharing may only be permitted if certain EU data protection standards are being protected and, indeed, the EU and its agencies concluded many agreements on data sharing within the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (hereafter: AFSJ) even though there were no concrete data protection standards available for this area until 2008. Nonetheless, Directive 95/46/EC2 was the first instrument setting data protection standards within the EU legal order and therefore could have been used and still can be used as a benchmark because of its exhaustive manner in which it regulates the use of personal data.3 After describing the data protection principles on the basis of Directive 95/46/EC and other relevant instruments, this study will evaluate the current instrument regulating data protection in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice – the Council Framework Decision 2008/977/JHA (hereafter: CFD or Framework Decision)4– and it will analyse three concluded agreements on data sharing between the EU, its agencies and the United States in terms of their compliance with the EU data protection standards. Accordingly, this study aims at answering the following research question: ‘To what extent do the agreements on data sharing of the European Union and its agencies with the United States respect the fundamental data protection standards of the European Union and its member states?’ All in all, this analysis comes to the conclusion that huge differences between the various actors and agreements can be individuated and moreover, it turns out that the agreements are, in fact, not fully in line with the EU data protection standards.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:85 business administration, organizational science
Programme:European Studies MSc (69303)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/61663
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