'US as we know it is back': EU vice president describes Biden's win over Trump

The Biden administration brings opportunities for a revamped trans-Atlantic data transfer system, Vera Jourova, European Union vice president said at an online event on Wednesday.

President Joe Biden’s victory over Donald Trump means “the U.S. as we know it is back,” according to the European Union official overseeing a key data-privacy pact with the new guard in Washington.

US President Joe Biden delivers at the White House in Washington, US (Reuters File Photo).

The Biden administration brings opportunities for a revamped trans-Atlantic data transfer system based on principles that include curbs on “disproportionate interferences with people’s privacy,” European Commission Vice-President Vera Jourova said at an online event on Wednesday.

Jourova’s comments follow a decision by the bloc’s top court last July to strike down the so-called Privacy Shield, an EU-back data transfer tool that thousands of companies relied on, amid fears over potential U.S. surveillance. The ruling forced regulators on both sides of the Atlantic and EU data protection authorities back to the drawing board, grappling with the ramifications amid doubts about the safety of EU user data once it’s been shipped to the U.S.

“We understand that these are complex and sensitive issues that relate to the delicate but crucial balance between national security and privacy,” Jourova said, adding that “finding a legally solid and sustainable arrangement is in our mutual interest.”

She said the EU, U.S. and “like-minded partners” “should intensify their cooperation to address the issues that threaten our shared freedoms and values, including the propagation of hate speech and disinformation, threats to electoral integrity or the governance of Artificial Intelligence.”