EDPS calls for strong safeguards in EU-US border data-sharing agreement
The EDPS warned that a proposed EU-US data-sharing agreement for border security must include strict safeguards to protect personal data, limit scope, and ensure transparency and judicial redress for individuals.
On 17 September 2025, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) issued an Opinion on the EU-US negotiating mandate for a framework agreement on exchanging information for security screenings and identity verifications. The European Commission’s Recommendation aims to establish legal conditions for sharing data between the EU member states and the USA, enabling bilateral agreements tied to the US Visa Waiver Program’s Enhanced Border Security Partnership.
EDPS Wojciech Wiewiórowski emphasised the need to balance border security with fundamental rights, warning that sharing personal and biometric data could interfere with privacy. The agreement, a first for large-scale data sharing with a third country, must strictly limit data processing to what is necessary and proportionate.
The EDPS recommended narrowing the scope of shared data, excluding transfers from sensitive EU systems related to migration and asylum, and called for robust accountability, transparency, and judicial redress mechanisms accessible to all individuals, regardless of nationality.
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