Ms Bucher, a French national, has been working for the European Commission for 35 years. Throughout her career, she has focused on a variety of policy areas – economy and finance, development and social policy, taxation and information society. She has held management functions for most of her career and has been a senior manager in the Commission’s Directorates-General for Economic Affairs and for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, respectively, since 2008.

In March 2016, Ms Bucher became the Chair of the Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board (RSB), which the Juncker Commission had put in place at the start of its mandate. In this role, she ensured that the RSB provided independent advice to the College, thus enabling the Commission to deliver on its political priorities and Better Regulation agenda. Among the recent success stories of the RSB, is its contribution to the delivery of over 50 legislative proposals for the sectoral programmes under the new long-term budget of the EU for 2021-2027.

Ms Bucher will bring to her new position solid management experience and a broad view of Commission policies in a variety of areas, which will be essential at times when effective health and food safety management is interlinked with economy and technology. She will be succeeding Mr Xavier Prats Monné who, after a long and distinguished career in the Commission, will retire at the end of September to work with non-profit organisations in the field of education.

Xavier Prats Monné, who joined the Commission with Spain’s accession to the EU in 1986, has contributed to shaping Commission policies in areas including employment, culture, youth and sport, health and food safety and foreign affairs. Between 2014 and 2015, he led the Commission’s department for education and culture (DG EAC), before becoming the head of DG SANTE in September 2015.

For more information

CVs of the European Commission’s top managers

​The three European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) – EBA, EIOPA and ESMA – today published the results of their monitoring exercise on automation in financial advice. The Report shows that while the phenomenon of automation in financial advice seems to be slowly growing, the overall number of firms and customers involved is still quite limited. As the identified risks have not materialised and considering the limited growth of the phenomenon, the ESAs believe that no immediate action is necessary. 

Through this Report, the risks and benefits of this phenomenon, which had previously been identified by the ESAs have largely been confirmed by national competent authorities (NCAs) and remain valid.

In examining emerging business models, the ESAs found that automated services are being offered, through partnerships, by established financial intermediaries, rather than by pure FinTech firms. Additionally, some new trends are emerging such as the use of Big Data, chatbots and a broader range of products.

The ESAs concluded that given the overall importance of the topic, and the emergence of some ongoing changes to business models, a new monitoring exercise will be conducted if and when the development of the market and market risks warrant this work.

Background

Following the publication of the Report on Automation in Financial Advice in 2016, this new analysis has been carried out through a survey involving NCAs, on the evolution of ‘automation in financial advice’ in the securities, banking and insurance sectors over the past two years

Commissioner Jourová today briefed the College on the next steps and the Commission is publishing the draft adequacy decision and the related documents. This includes the additional safeguards that Japan will apply to EU personal data transferred to Japan, as well as commitments regarding access to personal data by Japanese public authorities for law enforcement and national security purposes, guaranteeing that their level of data protection is adequate to that of the EU’s. Japan is also going through a similar process to recognise the EU’s data protection framework.

Věra Jourová, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality said: “We are creating the world’s largest area of safe data flows. Personal data will be able to travel safely between the EU and Japan to the benefit of both our citizens and our economies. Our partnership will promote global standards for data protection and set an example for future partnerships in this key area.”

Each side is now going through its internal procedures towards the final adoption of its reciprocal adequacy finding. For the EU, this involves obtaining an opinion from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB) and the green light from a committee composed of representatives of the EU Member States. Once this procedure will have been completed, the Commission will adopt the adequacy decision on Japan.

The key elements of the adequacy decision

To guarantee a level essentially equivalent to European standards, Japan has committed to implementing the following additional safeguards to protect personal data transferred to Japan, before the Commission formally adopts its adequacy decision:

• A set of rules providing individuals in the EU whose personal data are transferred to Japan, with additional safeguards that will bridge several differences between the two data protection systems. These additional safeguards will strengthen, for example, the protection of sensitive data, the conditions under which EU data can be further transferred from Japan to another third country, the exercise of individual rights to access and rectification. These rules will be binding on Japanese companies importing data from the EU and enforceable by the Japanese independent data protection authority (PPC) and courts.
• The Japanese government also gave assurances to the Commission regarding safeguards concerning the access of Japanese public authorities for criminal law enforcement and national security purposes, ensuring that any such use of personal data would be limited to what is necessary and proportionate and subject to independent oversight and effective redress mechanisms.
• A complaint-handling mechanism to investigate and resolve complaints from Europeans regarding access to their data by Japanese public authorities. This new mechanism will be administered and supervised by the Japanese independent data protection authority.
  

Europeans will benefit from strong protection of their personal data in line with EU privacy standards when their data is transferred to Japan. This arrangement will also complement the EU-Japan Economic Partnership Agreement as European companies will benefit fromfree data flows with this key commercial partner, as well as from privileged access to the 127 million Japanese consumers. The EU and Japan affirm that, in the digital era, promoting high privacy and personal data protection standards and facilitating international trade must and can go hand in hand.

Next steps

The draft adequacy decision will now go through the following procedure:

• Opinion from the European Data Protection Board (EDPB)
• Consultation of a committee composed of representatives of the Member States (comitology procedure)
• Update of the European Parliament Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs
• Adoption of the adequacy decision by the College of Commissioners.

Background

As announced in January 2017 in its Communication on Exchanging and Protecting personal data in a globalised world, the Commission launched a dialogue with the aim of reaching an adequacy decision with Japan.

On 17 July 2018, the EU and Japan successfully concluded their talks on reciprocal adequacy. They agreed to recognise each other’s data protection systems as adequate, which will allow personal data to be transferred safely between the EU and Japan.

The processing of personal in the EU is based on the General Data Protection Regulation, which provides for different tools to transfer personal data to third countries, including adequacy decisions.

For More Information                                                                  

Factsheet

Press release on the conclusions of the adequacy talks (17 July 2018)

Questions & Answers on the Japan adequacy decision

Link to draft adequacy decision and related documents

The stated objectives of the proposed Citizens’ Initiative are to end “inhumane treatment of farm animals” kept in cages. The organisers are asking the Commission to propose legislation to prohibit the use of: cages for laying hens, rabbits, pullets, broiler breeders, layer breeders, quail, ducks and geese; farrowing crates for sows; sow stalls and individual calf pens, where not already prohibited.

The Commission’s decision to register the Initiative concerns only the legal admissibility of the proposal. The Commission has not analysed the substance at this stage.

The registration of this Initiative will take place on 11 September 2018, starting a one-year process of collection of signatures of support by its organisers. Should the initiative receive one million statements of support within one year, from at least seven different Member States, the Commission will have to react within three months. The Commission can decide either to follow the request or not, and in both instances would be required to explain its reasoning.

Background

European Citizens’ Initiatives were introduced with the Lisbon Treaty and launched as an agenda-setting tool in the hands of citizens in April 2012, upon the entry into force of the European Citizens’ Initiative Regulation which implements the Treaty provisions.

Once formally registered, a European Citizens’ Initiative allows one million citizens from at least one quarter of EU Member States to invite the European Commission to propose a legal act in areas where the Commission has the power to do so.

The conditions for admissibility, as foreseen by the European Citizens’ Initiative Regulation, are that the proposed action does not manifestly fall outside the framework of the Commission’s powers to submit a proposal for a legal act, that it is not manifestly abusive, frivolous or vexatious and that it is not manifestly contrary to the values of the Union.

For more information

Full text of the proposed ‘End the cage Age’ European Citizens Initiative (active as of 11 September)

Other European Citizens’ Initiatives currently collecting signatures

European Citizens’ Initiative website

European Citizens’ Initiative Regulation

European Citizens’ Initiative Forum