Facebook loses court fight over halting EU-US data transfers

LONDON (AP) — Facebook lost a legal battle Friday with Ireland’s data privacy watchdog over a European Union privacy decision that could result in the social network being forced to stop transferring data to the U.S.

The Irish High Court rejected Facebook’s bid to block a draft decision by the country’s Data Protection Commission to inquire into, and order the suspension of, the company’s data flows between the European Union and the U.S.

Judge David Barniville wrote in his judgement that he concluded Facebook “must fail on those grounds of challenge and that it is, therefore, not entitled to any of the reliefs claimed in the proceedings.”

The Irish watchdog had launched its inquiry last year shortly after a ruling by the EU’s top court striking down an agreement covering EU-U.S. data transfers known as Privacy Shield., saying it didn’t do enough to protect users from U.S. government cybersnooping.

The Data Protection Commission “welcomes today’s judgment,” spokesman Graham Doyle said.

Facebook said in a statement it looked forward “to defending our compliance” to the commission, “as their preliminary decision could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to users and other businesses.”

The court ruling is the latest in a long-running battle between Facebook and Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems, who filed a complaint in 2013 about Facebook’s handling of his data after former U.S. National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden’s revelations.

While the case specifically targets Facebook, it could have wider ramifications for trans-Atlantic data transfers. That’s because Ireland’s watchdog is the lead regulator for enforcing stringent EU privacy rules for many other Silicon Valley tech giants that also have their European headquarters in Ireland, including Google and Twitter.

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Stop locking up EU citizens in removal centres, UK ministers tell border force

UK ministers have told border officials to stop locking up EU citizens in detention centres, it has emerged.

After 48 hours of criticism over “disproportionate” and “heavy-handed” decisions to place EU nationals without the correct paperwork for entry into the UK in immigration removal centres for days, the Home Office has issued new guidance to its border force.

It has advised border officials that, where appropriate, they should grant EU nationals immigration bail instead. This means passengers who are refused entry to the UK but cannot get an immediate flight home because of Covid travel restrictions will be permitted entry on bail conditions.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “While international travel is disrupted due to the pandemic, we have updated our guidance to clarify that overseas nationals, including EU citizens, who have been refused entry to the UK and are awaiting removal, should be granted immigration bail, where appropriate.

“Now freedom of movement has ended, people from across the EU can continue to visit the UK, but those coming to work or study must meet our entry requirements and we urge them to check before travelling.”

The Home Office came under pressure to act after a succession of stories of EU citizens including Italians, Spaniards and Bulgarians finding themselves in detention centres around Heathrow and Gatwick, surrounded by barbed wire and terrified.

One Italian woman, who was coming to the UK to improve her English on a short-stay visit to her uncle, an NHS consultant in London, told how she was sent to what she thought was a prison at Colnbrook detention centre near Heathrow.

She was expelled from the UK before her uncle was able to advocate on her behalf.

Facebook Pledges to Defend Compliance with EU Laws Amid Irish Privacy Data Probe

Facebook announced on 14 May it would defend its compliance with the EU’s privacy laws after the Irish High Court gave the go-ahead to an investigation by the Irish Data Protection Commission (IDPC) and rejected Facebook’s challenge to the inquiry that could lead to a ban on Facebook’s data transfers from the European Union to the United States.

“We look forward to defending our compliance to the IDPC, as their preliminary decision could be damaging not only to Facebook, but also to users and other businesses,” Facebook said in a statement.

Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) opened a probe in August, saying that the mechanism Facebook employs to transfer data of users from the European Union to the United States cannot be practically used.

Facebook earlier said that it might have to pull out of Europe if the Irish Data Protection Commission persists in enforcing a ban on sharing data with the US after the European Court of Justice found that the bloc’s measures to protect its data from US intelligence agencies were insufficient.

Commission expected to raise detentions of EU nationals with UK

LONDON — The European Commission will raise the recent detentions of EU nationals at U.K. airports on immigration grounds with the British government at a coming meeting, MEPs said.

At least 30 EU nationals from Germany, Greece, Italy, Spain and Romania have been detained at U.K. airports and held in immigration removal centers after being identified by U.K. border officials as intending to work in the country without a work visa, as POLITICO revealed last week.

Some of the individuals affected said they were detained after telling border officials that they were traveling to attend a job interview, something they are allowed to do without a visa.

Dacian Cioloș, a former Romanian prime minister who is now an MEP, said Friday that Commission Vice President Maroš Šefčovič told him in a phone call Wednesday that he will include this issue in his next meeting with British authorities, which will be a gathering of the EU-U.K. Joint Committee, a body overseeing the U.K.’s withdrawal from the EU.

Cioloș is one of eight MEPs from the Renew Europe group who recently called on the Commission to address the issue of the detentions.

In a letter sent to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Šefčovič on Wednesday, the eight MEPs wrote that the Commission should demand clarity from the U.K. government over the number of EU nationals detained at the border and the reasons behind the detentions. Brussels should also press London “to refrain from adopting such disproportionate measures on EU citizens and instead follow a more reasonable approach based on good faith and cooperation,” they wrote.

Hours after sending the letter, Cioloș called Šefčovič to ensure it had been received, a spokesman for the Romanian delegation of MEPs told POLITICO.

“Mr Šefčovič told him that the letter was being taken very seriously and that he had already spoken with the EU ambassador to the U.K. in order to ask the U.K. counterparts about the issue. Mr Šefčovič told Mr Cioloș that he will include this in the agenda of the next discussion he will have with the U.K. authorities in about one week,” he said.

At least five Romanians have been detained in immigration removal centers in the U.K. and over 150 denied entry at the U.K. border since January, according to figures from the Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

In a tweet Friday, Cioloș expressed his gratitude to Šefčovič for “agreeing to raise the issue of the detainment of EU nationals with UK authorities.”

The Commission is yet to reply formally to the letter, and did not confirm the content of the phone conversation between the two politicians. A Commission spokesperson pointed to its latest statement on the topic, issued Monday, expressing “concern” over the conditions and length of detention, which in some cases was four days or more, and said this was a “consular issue.”

Meanwhile, the watchdog for EU citizens’ rights in post-Brexit Britain, the Independent Monitoring Authority (IMA), said Friday it had requested information from the U.K. Home Office on this issue earlier this week in a bid to find out if any EU nationals with rights to reside in Britain after Brexit had been detained by mistake. The IMA was established in January to oversee the U.K.’s implementation of the citizens’ rights provisions in the Brexit Withdrawal Agreement.

“We are aware of this issue, it was brought to our attention early this week,” said Pam Everett, director of operational delivery at the IMA. “We have seen the press reports and had other conversations about this issue … We are trying to understand from the Home Office what’s happening and yes, of course, we are concerned. This is not a good position to be in.”

Everett encouraged any EU citizens affected by a situation like this to raise it with their consulate in the U.K. and consider making a complaint directly to the Home Office and to the IMA itself. However, she noted that the watchdog can only address cases concerning EU nationals who settled in Britain before the end of the Brexit transition on December 31, 2020.

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Breton: EU to impose requirements for safe reopening of tourism

Lisbon, May 14 (EFE).- The European Union will establish compulsory requirements to ensure a safe reopening of the bloc’s tourism sector this summer, said European Commissioner for Internal Market Thierry Breton on Friday.

Speaking at the High Level Forum for Sustainable Tourism, organized by the Portuguese rotating EU presidency in Porto, Breton said the recovery will take time, but expects to conclude negotiations to issue a Digital Green Certificate by the end of May.

“Member states need to have sufficient capacities in terms of hospitals, testing, surveillance, contact tracing, and so on,” he said ahead of the summit.

Requirements to businesses could include cleaning and disinfecting surfaces frequently, providing masks, and reserving spare rooms for potential contaminated guests, according to Breton.

Breton said the bloc has enough resources to ensure a safe reopening of the hospitality sector, hinting at the vaccine rollout and the digital green certificate.

The commissioner said he is confident that the green vaccination certificate will be available in the summer and that the EU will have enough vaccine doses in mid-July to inoculate 70 % of the bloc’s population.

However, a full recovery will still take some time, and businesses should embrace the digital and green transformation to turn changes in the market into “opportunities,” he said.

During the Forum’s opening session, the Portuguese Minister of Economy Pedro Siza called for a common European framework to relaunch the tourism sector.

Virginijus Sinkevicius, European commissioner for environment, oceans and fisheries, stressed the importance of a strategy to promote sustainable tourism.

Commissioner for Cohesion Elisa Ferreira focused on the need to diversify the sector to overcome seasonal instability.

Spain declines EU Parliament’s invitation to clear livestock ship affair

The Spanish government has rejected a request to speak before the European Parliament’s inquiry committee (ANIT) about issues related to live transport of animals, according to documents seen by EURACTIV.

The invitation referred to controversial events involving two livestock ships that departed from Spanish ports in mid-December, bound for Turkey and Lybia.

Turkish authorities rejected 800 cattle carried by the Lebanon-flagged ship Karim Allah, and 1,800 cattle on the other, Togo-flagged, Elbeik livestock carrier over suspicions of the bluetongue virus.

Although an outbreak amongst the bovines was not confirmed, the two ships had been stranded at sea as they were not allowed to dock at any port after the Turkish refusal.

Both ships wandered in the Mediterranean for months, ending their journey in Spain, where the government ordered the slaughtered of the unwanted animals.

At the end of April, the chair of the Parliament’s ANIT committee, the Green MEP Tilly Metz, invited Spanish Agriculture Minister Luis Planas to exchange views with European lawmakers in a meeting to be held on 25 May.

The Spanish government replied in a mail seen by EURACTIV that, due to the minister’s work schedule commitments in May, it would be impossible for him to participate in the meeting.

However, the invitation was open to a substitute representative from the Spanish agriculture ministry, in case Planas was busy that day.

In the reply mail, Spaniards reiterated their willingness to collaborate with the ANIT committee but without giving a representative to speak on behalf of the government, offering instead the possibility to answer in advance some questions to be raised at the meeting.

The government also attached a report in Spanish – previously sent to the EU’s Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides – with detailed information and conclusions drawn about what happened to the livestock carriers.

In the report, seen by EURACTIV, the Spanish government said that the circumstances that had led to the wandering of the ships were “rare and very exceptional.”

“The legislator will have to assess in the future whether some exceptions are necessary (without prejudice to the maximum protection of animal health), but in the meantime, the only possible action to be taken in the event of a refusal and return to EU territory is the euthanasia of the animals,” the document reads.

According to the Spanish, both the previous and the current EU animal health legislation do not allow the re-import of live animals rejected by third countries which have not previously authorised their export.

Contacted by EURACTIV, the ANIT chair Tilly Metz expressed her regrets that Spain has declined repeated invitations for an exchange with the members of the inquiry committee.

“Declining this invitation is a weird signal for a member state to send to a parliamentary committee representing EU citizens and it is even weirder considering that one of the co-rapporteurs of the inquiry committee is from Spain,” she said.

The ANIT committed is expected to deliver a final report on the current situation regarding the protection of animals during transport, in order to determine whether there has been maladministration of EU law so far in this field and to issue possible recommendations for the future.

“However, to properly fulfil this mandate, we rely on the good faith and cooperation of member states,” Metz concluded.

Spanish representatives did not reply to EURACTIV’s requests for clarification on the government position by the time of publication.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

EU at ‘tipping point’ in reversing current nutritional trends, report highlights

The EU is currently at a ‘tipping point’ when it comes to nutritional challenges, according to a new report, which highlights the urgent need for an integrated approach to ensure the balance tips in the right direction.

The report, published in May, takes a comprehensive look at European food systems and highlights that the EU is faced with a number of nutritional challenges, including overweight and obesity in adults, children and adolescents.

Although southern European countries and the UK were found to have the highest prevalence of overweight in children and adolescents, the number of overweight adults were found to exceed 50% of the population in all the countries analysed.

Speaking during a recent event to mark the launch of the report, Marta Antonelli, head of research at the Barilla Foundation, who authored the report, stressed that overweight and obesity are a serious challenge in all European countries.

“If we look at the average, we see that about six adults out of 10 are overweight and obese. And this is also increasing in the youngest generations,” she warned.

It is estimated that in the EU in 2017, more than 950,000 deaths, or one in five, were attributable to unhealthy diets mainly due to cardiovascular diseases and cancers.

Meanwhile, the cost of adult obesity in the EU was estimated at €70 billion per year in 2016, or approximately 7% of national budgets across the EU.

Pointing out that Europe is the continent most severely affected by non-communicable diseases, which represent the leading cause of disability and death, Antonelli stressed that food choices are the “most important factor that undermines health and well being in these countries”.

However, as Claire Bury, deputy director-general at the Commission’s DG SANTE, pointed out, while average intakes of energy red meat, sugars, salts and fats continue to exceed recommendations, consumption of whole-grains, cereals, fruit and vegetables, legumes or fruits are “not at the levels that they should be”.

Drawing a line between healthy diets and sustainable food systems, she emphasised that current food consumption patterns are “not sustainable from a health and environmental point of view”.

“Healthy diets not only reduce the risk of life-threatening diseases but also can have a positive impact on our food system. The transition to sustainable food systems won’t happen unless we managed to make the change in terms of shifts in people’s diets,” she said, highlighting that now is “really the moment” to work on tipping the scale in the right direction.

No simple solutions

Ensuring the scales tip the right way requires a multi-pronged attack, panellists stressed.

“Looking at food systems in a holistic manner is the way to go. We have to bring together all the different actors to help shape our policies and initiatives to enable us to deliver on our transformative ambitions,” Bury said, highlighting the need for a “fully integrated policy strategy” which engages all stakeholders at all levels.

One way that the nutrition transition can be addressed is by creating an “enabling environment”, Barilla’s Antonelli pointed out.

“It’s fundamental to create an enabling environment that helps us mainstream healthy and sustainable food choices in all contexts, so that these choices are really the easy, default ones for all consumers in Europe,” she said, highlighting the power of multi-stakeholder partnerships in facilitating this.

One way in which food business’ are being encouraged to do this is via the European Commission’s recently launched EU sustainability code of conduct.

In the framework of the code, envisaged to be ready for signature in time for the UN Sustainable Food Systems summit in September, the Commission is looking for concrete commitments from companies for actions on health and sustainability.

This includes encouraging the increased consumption of fruits and vegetables and whole grain cereals, as well as improving the nutritional quality foods and meals through reformulation where possible.

Education is ‘fundamental’

Another key element in facilitating a nutritional transition is education, as Michele Quaroni, deputy permanent representative of Italy, stressed during the event.

“Education is a fundamental element of a wider comprehensive approach to a more sustainable and healthier food system in Europe,” he said.

He stressed that it is of “paramount importance” to invest in citizens education and provide them with the “knowledge and skills so that they can make informed and conscious choices regarding their nutrition”.

Quaroni also commented on the fact that the report notes that traditional diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, are increasingly being abandoned in favour of Western diets, which are characterised by saturated fat, refined grain, salt and corn-derived fructose syrup content, with an associated reduced consumption of fruit and vegetables. 

Noting the culinary and cultural importance of traditional diets, Quaroni also highlighted that these initiatives should also be focused on reviving “national the traditional dietary models,” which he said are “invaluable assets in terms of health and sustainability goals”.

“The value of the Mediterranean diet does not end with the balanced combination of foods, there is an even more important underlying cultural dimension in it,” he added.

[Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic]

Hostile UK border regime traumatises visitors from EU

Britain’s hostile regime for potential EU migrants is traumatising visitors caught in its web and provoking further worries for European families receiving visits from relatives, according to accounts provided to the Guardian.

The slightest suspicion that someone may be entering Britain to work is often enough for them to be locked up, held at detention centres for up to a week and then expelled to wherever they have travelled from, some of those caught up by the policy have said. Complaints from relatives and host families in the UK have either gone unanswered or been ignored by the Home Office and some local MPs, they say.

An Italian NHS consultant told of his horror when his niece arrived from Italy for a short visit but ended up in a detention centre surrounded by barbed wire.

There is growing anger over what campaigners and MEPs have said is a “disproportionate” and “heavy-handed” implementation of post-Brexit immigration restrictions on EU citizens.

On Friday the EU’s co-chair of the post Brexit UK-EU partnership council, Maroš Šefčovič, told a group of Romanian MEPs he would be raising it with the UK authorities.

Giuseppe Pichierri, who has worked for the NHS for 15 years, told the Guardian he had waited for hours at Heathrow airport on 17 April with his four-year-old daughter to collect his 24-year-old niece Marta Lomartire with balloons and cards.

But she did not show. She had been stopped, quizzed and issued with an expulsion order before being locked up in Colnbrook detention centre for the night.

Pichierri took his tearful daughter home and was called in the middle of the night and told Lomartire was being taken into detention. “We were never approached or told where she was,” he said. The following day, despite being on call at Kingston hospital, he tracked her down to Colnbrook and had to travel to the detention centre to meet Lomartire, who was scared and upset.

She did not understand where she was being taken and believed it was a prison.

Lomartire, now back home in Puglia, said: “It has been a really ugly experience, but now that I have had time to think about, I’m not going to let that stop me from returning. I’m determined to see my cousins.” She said, however, that she was scared she might be stopped at the frontier again and barred from entry because of the stamp on her passport.

“I was expecting to have a beautiful evening with the kids and my cousins, but instead this nightmare started, instead of a reunion with my little cousins. Instead, I was behind bars and barbed wire. It was the complete opposite to what I had expected.”

Pichierri welcomed his niece’s visit so she could improve her English and help him and his wife, Jennifer Pichierri, who also works in the NHS with babysitting their 11-month-old baby and two older daughters.Conscious of the Covid-related travel restrictions, Giuseppe had provided her with a letter “outlining she could come and stay with us as an au pair, not realising that work, paid or not, is not permissible post-Brexit without a visa”.

He wanted to explain what he called his “honest mistake” to the authorities but never got the chance as Lomartire was expelled.

Jennifer says she fears the stamp on Lomartire’s passport may mean she is barred until she gets a new passport.

Her case emerged 24 hours after the Guardian reported on cases of Spanish, French, Bulgarian and Czech citizens being detained at airports overnight and taken to immigration removal centres.

Questions are being asked about why those without the correct paperwork are not just asked to return to the EU. The cases also highlight what appears to be an inconsistent approach at the border.

The German embassy said it also had citizens trying to go to the UK who said they were doing au pair work, and they were questioned at the airport but let through.

A spokesperson said: “The embassy is aware of a low single-digit number of cases of German nationals that were temporarily held at the airport after arrival. The persons concerned, who stated au pair work as their reason for entry, were allowed to leave after a few hours on the condition that they leave the UK within a few days.”

But the Romanian MEP Alin Mituța told the BBC he knew of five Romanians who had been detained. The Bulgarian embassy has also been told of citizens being taken to detention centres.

Mituța said the action was disproportionate. “They should be held in the airport and sent to their home countries as soon as possible. Sending them in detention centres for a couple of days without access to [their] phones and to be able to communicate with the family is not something that we expect from a country with which we expect to have a good relation in the in the future,” he told the BBC Radio 4 Today programme.

Luke Piper, a lawyer with the campaign group the3million, said he was not asking for EU citizens to be treated differently to other nationals, but just “fairly and not disproportionately”. He added: “It would appear that people have been treated disproportionately and heavy-handedly.”

The Home Office has been contacted but has yet to respond. However, it admitted that there had been a limited Covid outbreak at Yarl’s Wood detention in Bedford, where EU citizens are locked up after being stopped at Gatwick. “We are aware of small number of confirmed coronavirus cases,” a spokesperson confirmed.

Government sources argue that Border Force decisions have been complicated by the lack of return flights for those who enter the country without a necessary work visa and because of Covid.

In a letter sent to her MP, Paul Scully, the Home Office and numerous newspapers, Jennifer Pichierri said they never had an intention to employ Lomartire and she felt “heartbroken and betrayed”.

“She is a family member coming to spend time with her family. We only intended to demonstrate that we needed her help and that we are in a position to fully support her during her stay.”

“We tried to explain all of this to immigration (although my husband only had one short conversation with an immigration officer) to no avail. They denied her access to the UK,” she added.

“We are honest, hard-working citizens and if the decision had been made to deport her of course we would have returned her to the airport the next day.

“This is not the same country I grew up in, the same country that I have left to travel the world several times, that I have always raved about, felt proud of and looked forward to returning to. This is not the same country that my husband entered 13 years ago and decided to stay and dedicate his career to, have a family and build a life in.”

Alberto Costa, the Conservative MP for South Leicestershire, and longstanding campaigner on EU citizens’ rights said if any EU citizen “had entered the UK insisting that they are complying with the rules, and these rules are not being applied fairly, then I am sure the government would wish to be informed of and rectify any discrepancies with the new system”.

Italy scraps quarantine for EU, Britain and Israel

Italy on Friday said it was scrapping quarantine requirements for visitors from the European Union, Britain and Israel who test negative for coronavirus, as it seeks to woo back tourists.

Under new rules that come into force from Sunday, Italy will also extend so-called “COVID-free” flights, currently in place to and from the US, to Canada, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.

Naples and Venice will also be served by such flights, in addition to Rome and Milan, a health ministry spokesperson said.

At the same time, measures blocking arrivals from Brazil have been extended.

“Health Minister Roberto Speranza has signed a decree that provides for entry from countries in the EU and the Schengen area, as well as Britain and Israel, with a negative test, overcoming the current system of mini-quarantine,” the spokesperson said.

Outdoor eating in cafes and restaurants resumed last month and museums and cinemas reopened, although a 10pm curfew remains in place nationwide.