Economy - published on 29 June 2021
Source: European Commission Spokesperson’s Service
The Commission has today adopted two adequacy decisions for the United Kingdom – one under the
General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the other for the
Law Enforcement Directive. Personal data can now flow freely from the European Union to the United Kingdom where it benefits from an essentially equivalent level of protection to that
guaranteed under EU law.
The adequacy decisions also facilitate the correct implementation of the
EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which foresees the exchange of personal information, for example for cooperation on judicial matters. Both adequacies include strong safeguards in case of
future divergence such as a ‘sunset clause’, which limits the duration of adequacy to four years.
On 19 February, the Commission published two draft
adequacy decisions and launched the procedure for their adoption. Over the past months, the Commission has carefully assessed the UK’s law and practice on personal data protection.
The Commission has been in close contact with the European Data Protection Board, which gave its opinion on 13 April, the European Parliament and the Member States. Following this in-depth process,
the European Commission requested the green light on the adequacy decisions from Member States’ representatives in the so-called
comitology procedure.
The adoption of the decisions today, following the agreement from Member States’ representatives, is the last step in the procedure. The two adequacy decisions enter into force today.
Here you can
find the Commission’s press release.
