(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.
(2)
The Commission may find that a third country ensures an adequate level of protection. In that case, personal data may be transferred from the Member States without additional guarantees being necessary.
(6)
At the island's request, with effect from May 1993, the United Kingdom's ratification of the Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data (Convention No 108) was extended to the Isle of Man.
(7)
As regards the Isle of Man, the legal standards on the protection of personal data based on the standards set out in Directive 95/46/EC have been provided for in the Data Protection Act 2002 (”the Act”), which entered into force on 1 April 2003. This Act repeals and replaces the Data Protection Act 1986 (”the 1986 Act”).
(10)
The Isle of Man should therefore be regarded as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data as referred to in Directive 95/46/EC.
(11)
In the interest of transparency and in order to safeguard the ability of the competent authorities in the Member States to ensure the protection of individuals as regards the processing of their personal data, it is necessary to specify the exceptional circumstances in which the suspension of specific data flows may be justified, notwithstanding the finding of adequate protection.
For the purposes of Article 25(2) of Directive 95/46/EC, the Isle of Man is considered as providing an adequate level of protection for personal data transferred from the Community.
This Decision concerns the adequacy of protection provided in the Isle of Man 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 Isle of Man in order to protect individuals with regard to the processing of their personal data in the following cases:
For the Commission
Frederik BOLKESTEIN
Member of the Commission
(1) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31
(2) Opinion 6/2003 on the level of protection of personal data in the Isle of Man, adopted by the Working Party on 21 November 2003, available at http://europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/privacy/workingroup/wp 2003/wpdocs03_en.htm