EU and Japan sign protocol to include cross-border data flows

On behalf of the EU, the Belgian Presidency of the Council has signed the protocol to include provisions on cross-border data flows in the agreement between the EU and Japan for an Economic Partnership.

The protocol will provide greater legal certainty, ensuring that data flows between the EU and Japan will not be hampered by unjustified data localisation measures, and also ensuring the benefit from the free flow of data according to the EU and Japan’s rules on data protection and the digital economy.

This is a very important achievement as the EU and Japan are among the largest digital economies in the world. Data governance and cross-border data flows are crucial to the development of digitalisation and of the global economy and society.

Hadja Lahbib, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Affairs and Foreign Trade

Background and next steps 

On 26 September 2022, the Council approved negotiating directives for the Commission to negotiate the inclusion of provisions on cross-border data flows in the agreement between the EU and Japan for an Economic Partnership. The negotiations were concluded in principle on 28 October 2023.

On 1 December 2023, the Commission transmitted proposals for Council decisions on the signature and conclusion, on behalf of the EU, of the protocol amending the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement regarding the free flow of data.

On 29 January 2024, the Council adopted the decision on the signing of the protocol to include provisions on cross-border data flows in the agreement between the EU and Japan for an Economic Partnership. The Council also decided to send the decision to ratify the protocol to the Parliament for its approval.

Once the agreement has been ratified by Japan, and the two sides have notified each other about the completion of their internal procedures, it can enter into force.