EC To Debate Reopening Safe Harbor Pact with U.S. Tomorrow

The European Commission will begin debate tomorrow on a request by the European Parliament (EP) to reopen negotiations with the Clinton Administration over the safe harbor provisions of a data protection agreement reached in March.

The European Union ratified the safe harbor provision of the agreement in May. It permits participating U.S. direct marketers, list companies and others to obtain, use, and disseminate such personal data of Europeans as name, age, address, telephone number, family size and income and spending habits for marketing purposes, only after they obtain the person’s written permission.

While the agreement was generally hailed on both sides of the Atlantic, the 626-member European Parliament refused to endorse it, citing the lack of laws in the U.S. protecting the privacy of personal information. The EP’s rejection of the agreement is not binding on the EC, which could either agree with the EP or reject its request and endorse the pact as written. Either way, according to an EC spokesman, the free flow of personal data between Europe and the U.S., which has been going on for years, will continue unimpeded.

There was no immediate comment on the EP’s rejection of the agreement from either the Direct Marketing Association or the U.S. Commerce Department, both of which are closely monitoring debates in the EC.

Alastair Tempest, Director General of the Federation of European Direct Marketing (FEDMA), called the EP’s action a “major set-back for a common approach to data privacy” by European and American governments. He went on to say that the safe harbor provision “brought the U.S. toward a common understanding with the EU on the details and rights of the individual to privacy protection.”

The original agreement took some two years for the EU and the US to negotiate.