The European Union and U.S. government yesterday set March as the new deadline for reaching agreement on data privacy, a Commission spokesman said.
However, the new deadline could slip as easily as the previous deadlines due to the fact that the two sides have still failed to resolve their fundamental differences over self-regulation, as advocated by the U.S., and legislation, as advocated by the Europeans, and over the need to ensure consumers have clear dispute settlement rights.
Indeed, when asked why March was set as the deadline, a Commission official who asked not to be identified replied, "because it sounds better than June."
New problems have also surfaced, the Commission official says. The U.S. has recently approved new regulations on financial services that include data privacy provisions which the U.S. wants the EU to recognize as equivalent to EU standards, but the EU is disappointed with the rules.
Senior U.S. and European officials have sought a solution to this problem ever since the European Union introduced its data privacy directive in October 1998. This directive seeks to eliminate national barriers to the transmission of data among the 15 member states by ensuring high standards of data protection. The directive also stipulates that in order to allow data transmissions to countries outside the EU, that country must introduce equitable standards of protection.
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