In every other agreement reached by Europol to exchange personal data with non-E.U. states the Joint Supervisory Body of Europol (responsible for data protections aspects) has presented a report on the data protection laws of the country in question before negotiations can be started. Europol treaties with 11 states and international organisations have so far been concluded, negotiations with a further five countries are underway and another 13 agreements are in the pipeline. In this case the Joint Supervisory body admits that its Opinion (dated 3 October 2002) which gives the go-ahead is based on "general knowledge" and "presentations" by U.S. officials.
The USA set pre-conditions for the agreement:
i) that there should no changes to its national laws (though the U.S. government has managed to pass two sweeping and extensive new laws, the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, overriding traditional liberties and introducing intrusive powers of surveillance);
ii) no substantive changes to automated data processing by its law enforcement agencies - which is clearly necessary for the USA as the authorities have no idea how many agencies have access to the data held:
"the U.S. side made it clear that it was impossible for them to indicate with any degree of accuracy which authorities could be involved in using such information"
The USA set pre-conditions for the agreement:
i) that there should no changes to its national laws (though the U.S. government has managed to pass two sweeping and extensive new laws, the Patriot Act and the Homeland Security Act, overriding traditional liberties and introducing intrusive powers of surveillance);
ii) no substantive changes to automated data processing by its law enforcement agencies - which is clearly necessary for the USA as the authorities have no idea how many agencies have access to the data held:
"the U.S. side made it clear that it was impossible for them to indicate with any degree of accuracy which authorities could be involved in using such information"