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The U.K. regards the EU’s data rules, which are crucial to both companies and security agencies, as one of its successes within the bloc -- the British Information Commissioner’s Office played a large role in their development. Staying aligned would allow the sharing of information between offices in different countries confident that it was subject to proper protection rules.
While the EU currently offers “adequacy agreements” to third party countries, certifying that they conform to European rules, these can be withdrawn at any time, and wouldn’t offer British businesses the stability they need.
“We want to go further and seek a bespoke arrangement to reflect the U.K.’s exceptionally high standards of data protection,” May told the Munich Security Conference in a speech on Saturday. “And we’re ready to start working through this with colleagues in the European Commission now.”
May even proposed “an ongoing role” for the U.K.’s data agency in setting the EU’s rules. She also wants U.K. defense companies to be able to compete on a level-playing field for European projects. [...]
UK Finance responds to Theresa May’s Munich speech on security and data transfer
PM speech at Munich Security Conference: 17 February 2018