(1) Pursuant to Directive 95/46/EC, Member States are required to provide that the transfer of personal data to a third country may take place only if the third country in question ensures an adequate level of protection and if the Member States' laws implementing other provisions of the Directive are complied with prior to the transfer.
(8)
Data protection provisions are also contained in a number of legal instruments regulating different sectors, such as financial sector legislation, health regulations and public registries.
(15)
The Working Party on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data established under Article 29 of Directive 95/46/EC has delivered a favourable opinion on the level of adequacy as regards protection of personal data in relation to automated international transfers of personal data from the European Union or, whether they are non-automated they are subject to further automated processing in the State of Israel. In its favourable opinion, the Working Party has encouraged the Israeli authorities to adopt further provisions which extend the application of Israeli legislation to manual databases, which expressly recognise the application of the proportionality principle to personal data processing in the private sector and which interpret the exemptions in international data transfers as in accordance with the criteria set out in its ‘Working document on a common interpretation of Article 26(1) of Directive 95/46/EC’ (2). This opinion has been taken into account in the preparation of this Decision (3).
1. This Decision concerns only the adequacy of protection provided in the State of Israel, as defined in accordance with international law, with a view to meeting the requirements of Article 25(1) of Directive 95/46/EC and does not affect other conditions or restrictions implementing other provisions of that Directive that pertain to the processing of personal data within the Member States.
1. Without prejudice to their powers to take action to ensure compliance with national provisions adopted pursuant to provisions other than Article 25 of Directive 95/46/EC, the competent authorities in Member States may exercise their existing powers to suspend data flows to a recipient in the State of Israel in order to protect individuals with regard to the processing of their personal data in the following cases:
