Lawyers Urge Trump to Maintain EU-US Data Privacy Framework

“Disrupting this framework would endanger data flows that are vital to transatlantic trade and to businesses and consumers in both the U.S. and Europe,” they blogged. “During the long negotiations when a new framework was uncertain, there was a risk that data protection regulators in the EU could cut off flows of personal data to the U.S.”

When President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the framework -- at the time called the Privacy Shield -- was maintained, allowing continued trans-Atlantic data flows, the lawyers said. The Privacy Shield was invalidated in 2020, and the Trump administration began negotiations on a new arrangement, which the Biden administration finished in 2023, Kerry and Tews blogged.

While the Heritage Center's Project 2025 presidential transition report didn't call for a repeal of the framework, it cast doubt on how long it would last, the lawyers said. “An incoming President should ask for an immediate study of the implementation of Executive Order 14086 and suspend any provisions that unduly burden intelligence collection,” the 2025 report said. “At the same time, in negotiations with the Europeans, the United States should make clear that the continued sharing of intelligence with EU member states depends on successful resolution of this issue within the first two years of a President’s term.”

But Kerry and Tews argue that any distortion to the EU-U.S. framework would result in damages on both sides of the Atlantic. “The incoming administration should avoid disrupting EO 14086 as it was carefully calibrated to fit elements of privacy protection essential under EU law into the confines of U.S. law and the constitutional separation of powers,” said the blog. “The order does not change intelligence collection or procedures significantly but clarifies and codifies long-standing practices developed over multiple administrations.”