EC halts Israel data deal

Scofflaw

The European Commission has halted a proposal to allow Israel access to potentially sensitive data on European Union citizens following concerns expressed by the Irish Government.

The concerns arose following the use of forged Irish passports in the murder of a Hamas operative, allegedly by Israeli agents.

In a surprise move this morning, the Commission said they would withdraw the application to effectively recognise Israel's data protection standards as being on a par with those enjoyed in the EU

...

Mr Martin said the Irish Government had raised concerns in the context of the fraudulent misuse of information on Irish passport holders for an extra judicial killing in Dubai and had articulated its anger about that on a number of occasions.

The objection, he said, was a further manifestation of this anger and protest at what had transpired in relation to, what was in essence, the stealing of data from legitimate Irish passports.

Mr Martin added, however, that he has made it consistently clear that Ireland wants good relations with Israel.

But over the past 18-24 months, he said, a series of events had happened which had put a strain on that.

Source

Recognition of Israel's data standards as being equivalent to EU data standards would allow for the export or storage of EU citizens' data in Israel. It's not really a deal in the sense of actually agreeing to export data.

In the light of the passport forgery by Israel's secret service, I'd consider the move above warranted - I don't know whether other countries affected, such as the UK, have raised similar objections. I presume that the Commission was able to take this on board fairly easily because it's not merely a political objection, but one with a technical point - which is that Irish data is hardly safe if Mossad can use it to forge passports.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Sticky_Fingers

Why does Israel even want personal info on EU citizens? Is there any advantage to us supplying it or is all part of the War on Terror BS that has dominated international relations for years. I wouldn't trust our own government to act in a responsible manner with regards my personal data, I sure as hell won't expect a foreign nation to.

baztard

Fair play to Martin on this move. Its clear Israel can't be trusted after their whole handling of the forged passport incident. The Irsaeli ambassador spoke about how relatons had not been harmed between our two countries after it, but clearly they have been. Minister Martin would not have made his objections had Israel not murdered someone with the aid of forged Irish passports previously. They are no friend of Irelands, friends do not lie and decieve and act insincerily to each other.

I also wonder why UK and Germany and France etc didn't lodge an objection also. There could be a hundred reasons, so I'll speculate...
...maybe they didn't notice the technicality of manual handling that Ireland did
...maybe as these countires are also involved in large scale espionage, they dont feel as agrieved as Irealand
...maybe the Israeli lobby in those countries is extremely strong
...maybe all the foreign ministers knew that Ireland would make the objection, so knew they could keep quiet themselves

any thoughts...

Nodin

THE EUROPEAN Commission has suspended plans, resisted by Ireland, to allow the transfer to Israel and storage there of sensitive personal data on European citizens.

The Government is concerned that the manual inspection of passports is not subject to data protection under Israeli law and also questions the independence of the authorities charged with ensuring data protection in Israel. “The Minister welcomes the decision by the EU Commission to withdraw the proposal with regard to Israel,” said a spokesman for Mr Ahern.
A spokesman for Ms Reding said the plan was still in play. “A decision has been delayed.”
“It’s not correct to say the proposal has been withdrawn. There were no conclusions from today’s meeting and the commission continues to analyse the situation.

(my bold, where present)
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/world/2010/0903/1224278127920.html
It would seem that its not off the table yet.

I'm quite suprised that it has such wide support as well.

Scofflaw

Sticky_Fingers wrote: »

Why does Israel even want personal info on EU citizens? Is there any advantage to us supplying it or is all part of the War on Terror BS that has dominated international relations for years. I wouldn't trust our own government to act in a responsible manner with regards my personal data, I sure as hell won't expect a foreign nation to.

I don't think there's a specific deal here - it's about recognition of data standards.

In the EU, if you collect personal data on people, you have to comply with certain rules and obligations - only collecting it for a specific purpose, allowing poeople access to their own records, etc. All of that is the reason we have a Data Protection Commissioner.

One of the things you're not allowed to do is export the data to a jurisdiction that lacks similar safeguards. If the deal here goes ahead, then Israel is recognised as somewhere with equivalent safeguards, and you would be able to export data to Israel if you wanted/needed to.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Corsendonk

baztard wrote: »

I also wonder why UK and Germany and France etc didn't lodge an objection also. There could be a hundred reasons, so I'll speculate...
...maybe they didn't notice the technicality of manual handling that Ireland did
...maybe as these countires are also involved in large scale espionage, they dont feel as agrieved as Irealand
...maybe the Israeli lobby in those countries is extremely strong
...maybe all the foreign ministers knew that Ireland would make the objection, so knew they could keep quiet themselves

any thoughts...

Correct, more than likely the Irish sounded them all out, they couldn't publically support it due to the variety of reasons you outlined, Israel seems to scream Holocaust everytime Germany seems to come close to condemning them. There is still alot of anger in Europe against Israel leftover from the Gaza flotilla mess.