The Meijers Committee announced their comment on EU–US negotiations for an enhanced border security partnership on the exchange of personal data for border procedures and visa applications:

This Meijers Committee’s comment discusses the ongoing EU–US negotiations for a new Framework Agreement on data exchange in the context of border procedures and visa applications. The document outlines key concerns regarding data protection standards, non-discrimination, and access to justice, and provides recommendations for ensuring compliance with EU law.

This comment is relevant to Europeans travelling to the US.

The abstract:

The Meijers Committee is concerned that the EU–US negotiations on a new data‑exchange Framework Agreement pose major risks to the fundamental rights of data protection, non-discrimination and access to justice. The Meijers Committee emphasizes that the agreement could enable unprecedented large‑scale transfers of sensitive personal data (including biometrics) for border and visa procedures without an impact assessment, both from third-country nationals as from EU citizens with double nationality. The Meijers Committee underlines that purpose limitation, data retention limits, data‑subject rights, and safeguards against automated decision‑making must be sufficiently guaranteed. Currently US oversight bodies are facing challenges to their independence. The Meijers Committee is also concerned about discriminatory effects of such transfer agreement. Personal data belonging to third‑country nationals and EU nationals with dual nationality would be shared more extensively than that of EU citizens with a single nationality, without the “very weighty reasons” that European human‑rights law requires to justify such differential treatment. The Meijers Committee notes possible gaps in the US legal system concerning the right to have access to justice, considering the limited scope of the current US Judicial Redress Act. Consequently, the Meijers Committee calls for a full data protection and human rights impact assessment before any agreement with the US is adopted.