Viviane Reding met with U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder

Brussels, 4-4-2013 — /europawire.eu/ — Meeting between European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding and U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder.

European Commission Vice-President Viviane Reding and United States Attorney General Eric Holder met today in Washington. They had cordial discussions on a wide range of fields of collaboration between the Department of Justice and the European Commission.

Among the topics discussed were victims’ rights, rights of persons with disabilities and the need to protect children against online predators. Attorney General Holder referred to the experience both of the Department of Justice’s Office for the Victims of Crime, and the Disability Rights Section of the Department’s Civil Rights Division. Vice-President Reding and Attorney General Holder welcomed the opportunity for a meeting of experts in this regard. Both the Attorney General and Vice-President Reding also noted the important role that Eurojust has taken in coordinating highly successful multilateral investigations, including of online child predators, and both committed to ensuring the continuation of such collaboration through Eurojust.

The meeting concluded with a discussion of the ongoing negotiations for a data protection agreement covering police and judicial information. They noted the importance attached on both sides of the Atlantic to providing a high level of personal data and privacy protection for all individuals. Attorney General Holder and Vice President Reding expressed appreciation for the ongoing and positive discussion by U.S. and EU experts on protecting and sharing data on the basis of a commonly agreed framework. Each noted recent progress made, and both sides were optimistic in reiterating their determination to finalize negotiations as rapidly as possible.

For more information

21 June 2012 Joint Statement on the Data Privacy and Protection agreement: MEMO/12/474

Press release on launch of the EU-U.S. negotiations on the Data Privacy and Protection agreement: IP/10/609

Speech by Vice-President Reding ‘Towards a new Gold Standard in Data Protection?’: SPEECH