Leading ICT journalist Jennifer Baker is joined by Viviane Reding, European Commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights & Citizenship, to discuss data protection regulation and the EU-US Safe Harbor agreement.

In the interview, Commissioner Reding shares her enthusiasm about the European Parliament’s approval of the Data Protection Package: “Parliament was capable to melt together the conflicting ideas of citizens and economy into one action”. Regarding the Safe Harbor agreement, the Commissioner is more sceptical: “the Safe Harbor does not look very safe now and, therefore, I gave the US counterparts a 13 point to-do list, which should be completed by summer of this year”.  According to Reding, Safe Harbor is the European Union’s present to the United States, as the US does not have data protection rules. Companies that choose to sign up to the Safe Harbor, agree to protect their customers’ data to EU standards.