Europe's data protection authorities have called on member states and the European institutions to open urgent discussions with the United States following the striking down of the Safe Harbour agreement previously used as a legal basis for transferring personal data to the US.

Members of the Article 29 Working Party – composed of all the EU data protection authorities, the European Data Protection Supervisor and the European Commission – met on Thursday to discuss the recent Court of Justice ruling in the Schrems case.

In a statement on Friday, the working group said it would “observe closely the developments of the pending procedures before the Irish High Court”. The Schrems case is due for mention before the court on Tuesday.

Appropriate actions

Data transfers using Safe Harbour were unlawful following the Schrems judgment, the group insisted. If no appropriate solution was found with the US authorities by the end of January 2016, EU data protection authorities were committed to taking “all necessary and appropriate actions, which may include coordinated enforcement actions”.