Acceso usuarios
Crístian Oró Martínez
This case-law comment deals with the ECJ’s judgment of 30 May 2006, in joined cases C-317/04 and C-318/04, by virtue of which the Court annuls a Council Decision and a Commission Decision, both adopted in order to allow the conclusion of a controversial agreement between the EC and the USA on the processing and transfer of air passengers’ personal data by air carriers to the US authorities. Although this case raises the delicate issue of which should be the level of adequate protection of fundamental rights, the ECJ only examines it from the standpoint of the lack of competence of the EC to adopt such Decisions, and thus, to conclude such an agreement. Notwithstanding the annulment of these two Decisions, European air carriers must be able to comply both with EC and US requirements as to the processing of personal data. Therefore, in order to ensure them legal and financial certainty, it is submitted that a new agreement with the same or similar scope and subject matter should be renegotiated and concluded, albeit in the framework of the so-called “third pillar” of the EU Treaty, which contains the provisions on police and judicial cooperation in judicial matters.
