The proposed EU-Vietnam trade agreement contains weak safeguards for data protection. Basically, they are just as weak as the safeguards in the EU-Japan trade agreement. This is all the more frustrating as the EU commission knows how to do better. In January 2018 it adopted a proposal for a stronger safeguard, which consumer and digital rights organisations supported. 1 However, after two years, the commission still hasn’t used the better safeguard in trade agreements. It is unknown whether the new commission will adopt it.
The European Parliament plenary vote on the EU-Vietnam agreement is expected February 10-13 2020. If we want to take fundamental rights seriously, the Parliament should reject the agreement. That opens the possibility to use the better safeguard in a new version of the agreement.
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