Adequacy decisions

The European Commission has the power to determine, on the basis of article 45 of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 whether a country outside the EU offers an adequate level of data protection.

The adoption of an adequacy decision involves:

• a proposal from the European Commission;
• an opinion of the European Data Protection Board;
• an approval from representatives of EU countries;
• the adoption of the decision by the European Commission.

At any time, the European Parliament and the Council may request the European Commission to maintain, amend or withdraw the adequacy decision on the grounds that its act exceeds the implementing powers provided for in the regulation.

The effect of such a decision is that personal data can flow from the EU (and Norway, Liechtenstein and Iceland) to that third country without any further safeguard being necessary. In others words, transfers to the country in question will be assimilated to intra-EU transmissions of data.

The European Commission has so far recognised:

• Andorra,
• Argentina,
• Canada (commercial organisations),
• Faroe Islands,
• Guernsey,
• Israel,
• Isle of Man,
• Japan,
• Jersey,
• New Zealand,
• Republic of Korea,
• Switzerland,
• the United Kingdom under the GDPR and the LED,  as amended in December 2025 through one renewal decision under the GDPR and one renewal decision under the LED ,
• the United States (commercial organisations participating in the EU-US Data Privacy Framework),
• Uruguay,
• and the European Patent Organisation as providing adequate protection.

With the exception of the United Kingdom, these adequacy decisions do not cover data exchanges in the law enforcement sector which are governed by the Law Enforcement Directive (Article 36 of Directive (EU) 2016/680).

The Commission is required to periodically review the adequacy decisions adopted under the GDPR and its predecessor, Directive 95/46/EC, and to report its findings to the European Parliament and the Council. In line with this obligation, the Commission published its Report on the first periodic review of the adequacy decision for Japan on 4 April 2023. On 15 January 2024 the Commission published its Report on the first review of the functioning of the eleven adequacy decisions adopted pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC. On 9 October 2024, the Commission published its Report on the first review of the functioning of the adequacy decision on the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

High-level meeting on International Data Flows

On 4 March 2024, the Commission hosted the first ever high-level meeting on safe data flows, gathering responsible Ministers and heads of the data protection authorities of 15 countries and territories for which the EU has adopted an adequacy decision as well as the Chair of the European Data Protection Board. Participants discussed ways to leverage this network of like-minded partners to maximise the benefits of safe and free data flows and explored avenues for closer cooperation on enforcement of data protection rules.

Documents