The UK is at the “end of the queue” for a deal to allow data to continue to flow freely with the EU after Brexit, according to a senior European official.
Talks over the future trade relationship between the UK and the EU will begin early next year, but officials in Brussels have warned that with only 11 months until a Brexit transition period ends in December 2020, the window may be too tight for an agreement on data.
Wojciech Wiewiorowski, the EU’s new data protection supervisor, said the UK was “13th in the row” of countries that are negotiating data deals with Brussels. Allowing the UK to skip the queue “would be a little bit unfair towards those who have already prepared themselves for this process,” he added.
Officials in Brussels have warned several times that assessing the UK’s data “adequacy” — whether UK regulations on data protection are as robust as those in the EU — will be a lengthy process and that the issue may fall down the list of priorities in the wider negotiations. Mr Wiewiorowski’s predecessor, Giovanni Buttarelli, also warned that reaching a deal “could take years”.
A deal is critical for scores of businesses, especially in the tech, health and insurance sectors, which regularly transfer data — including bank details and other personal information — to and from the continent for analysis or processing. More than three-quarters of UK data transfers are with EU countries, according to industry group TechUK. While the UK has already implemented the EU’s general data protection regulation (GDPR) into British law, Mr Wiewiorowski said there remained issues over how British intelligence agencies handled personal data collected in the EU, and whether the UK would comply with EU rules on surveillance.
“There are some concerns about the processing of personal data for law enforcement purposes in the UK,” he said. am not going to say that is not realistic [within the transition period]. I am saying that it is still possible but it is hard. Talking about deadlines is not an easy thing.”
[...]his warnings echo concerns from senior EU Brexit officials. “There will be trillions of issues that need to be resolved. Each side will have their list of what is most important. It is hard to see how data protection will be on the top of that list,” warned one EU official. [...]
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