Letter to the Bulgarian Council Presidency on free data flows

For more than a year, the Commission has promised to produce a text to allow the inclusion of data flows in trade agreements. Now it has arrived. Parts of the proposed text are not expected to lead to freer data flows between countries, on the contrary, it sets out a large number of restrictions on whether data flows should be allowed on the grounds that they protect privacy. The reason for these is that it is important to provide wide margins at all costs so that the Data Protection Regulation cannot be criticized by a party you are negotiating with, but the conclusion is that other countries whose restrictive data rules disadvantage European companies will also be allowed.

IT&Telecom together with several other organizations have written a letter to the Council to highlight the business community's need for freer data flows. You can read the letter here.