On March 25, 2022, European Commissioner for Justice Didier Reynders and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo issued a joint statement announcing that the negotiations on an enhanced EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework will intensify (the “Joint Statement”).

A new framework for transfers of personal data between the EU and the U.S. has been needed since the previous EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework was annulled by the Court of Justice of the European Union in the Schrems II judgment in July 2020. Discussions on a potential enhanced EU-U.S. Privacy Shield framework began in August 2020.

According to the Joint Statement, the negotiations “underscore [a] shared commitment to privacy, data protection and the rule of law and [a] mutual recognition of the importance of transatlantic data flows to [EU and U.S.] citizens, economies, and societies,” and the EU-U.S. partnership “on facilitating trusted data flows will support economic recovery after the global pandemic, to the benefit of citizens and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.”

 Additionally, in a joint speech given in Brussels today, the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyden, and U.S. President Biden indicated that the EU and the U.S. have found “an agreement in principle on a new framework for transatlantic data flows” that will “enable predictable and trustworthy data flows between the EU and the U.S., safeguarding privacy and civil liberties.”