The Commissioner for Information of Public Importance and Personal Data Protection estimates that the recently issued ruling by the European Court of Justice that established that the "Safe Harbour" agreement (on the basis of which personal data had been transferred to the USA without particular formalities and consent) between the EU and the USA is invalid, represents one of the most important precedents in hitherto international practice concerning personal data protection.

Emphasizing that this ruling by the European Court of Justice is of great significance for us as well, albeit Serbia is not a member of the EU, the commissioner Rodoljub Sabic has stated the following:

"Although this ruling may come as a surprise to many, it has been signaled to some extent by the opinion that had been stated previously by the Advocate General Yves Bot on demand of the Court, in which he recommended that the European Court of Justice declare the "Safe Harbour" agreement between the EU and the USA – invalid.

The Advocate General based his opinion, formally non-binding, but regularly very influential, on the ascertainments that:

- The National Security Agency and other security agencies in the USA are in position to access the transferred personal data in the "massive and unselective manner", which violates the right to privacy pursuant to Article 7 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU.

- The EU citizens "do not have an adequate legal remedy against the processing of personal data transferred to the USA for other purposes but those for which they have been primarily collected", by which Article 47 of the Charter of the Fundamental Rights of the EU, that provides for the effective legal remedy and fair trial, is violated.

- Abstractedly formulated deviations potentially allow for all the principles of the "Safe Harbor" to be breached by not restricting the processing only to those data that are strictly necessary and thus compromise "the fundamental right to the protection of personal data" from Article 8 of the Charter.

The Court accepted the standpoint of Yves Bot and handed down the ruling by which "Safe Harbour" was declared invalid. Although brought on the occasion of one concrete case, the decision will undoubtedly have global consequences, which we are yet to consider, for the whole world and for Serbia as well.

As someone who represents the body competent for the protection of personal data of the citizens of Serbia, on this occasion I remind of the duty of the Republic of Serbia to provide its citizens and residents with the rights to protection of personal data, guaranteed by the Constitution, the law and the Convention 108 of the Council of Europe, whose signatory we are, as well as all the EU countries.

It is crucial and it would be good if this dramatic turn on the occasion of processing, i.e. the protection of personal data, between the EU and the USA, reminded us of the ambiguities and deficiencies of our legal remedies concerning the transborder transfer of personal data. The commissioner has pointed this out on numerous occasions, but the competent authorities did not react. With regard to this I remind of the Model of the new Law on Personal Data Protection that the Commissioner prepared and made available to the Government one year ago providing for the solution concerning the transborder transfer of personal data that extensively draws upon the EU positions and practices".