European collaboration with the U.S. on privacy issues is going to be tough, representatives from the European Commission and European Parliament said Tuesday at a Data Protection Day conference in Brussels.
Finding common ground on data protection "remains a challenging task, primarily because privacy is deeply shaped by cultural, legal, and economic contexts," Ginervra Cerrina Feroni, vice-president of Italian privacy watchdog Garante, said in an email. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), for example, is rooted in a fundamental rights-based approach, while frameworks like the Global Cross Border Privacy Rules (CPBR) system emphasize voluntary compliance and flexibility, reflecting different traditions and priorities.
The Council of the EU Tuesday approved rules aimed at improving cross-border access to EU health data. The European Health Data Space (EHDS) regulation will give people better access to and control over their personal electronic health data while allowing certain data to be reused for research and innovation for patients' benefit, the Council said.
The European Border and Coast Guard Agency (Frontex) violated EU law when it transmitted the personal data of suspects of cross-border crimes to Europol, the EU's law enforcement cooperation agency, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), announced Wednesday. The EDPS is responsible for monitoring personal data processing by EU institutions and bodies. In October 2022, it audited Frontex's activities when assisting EU countries at external borders in joint operations.
Better international enforcement cooperation, AI and data free flow with trust (DFFT) are 2025's top priorities for Group of 7 (G7) data protection authorities, several told us. Their October roundtable in Rome focused on those three topics, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) reported. Representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the U.K., the U.S., the EDPS and the European Data Protection Board participated.