Good morning and welcome to Europe Express, your daily guide to what matters in the EU and its neighbourhood. Today, we’re looking at Ireland, where the local regulator of data protection is in the hot seat as critics accuse her of not being tough enough on social media companies such as Facebook. A hearing in the Irish parliament highlights the conundrum Europe faces: Can one small regulator be entrusted with the online privacy rights of hundreds of millions of Europeans?
Later, we will stop in Geneva, where the UN is convening a first effort to restart diplomatic talks on the Cyprus partition after a four-year break. Political leaders in Turkish-occupied northern Cyprus are pitching a two-state solution — but it is hard to find international appetite for the proposal outside Ankara. More on that in a minute.
Also on Tuesday: France and Germany have announced they will jointly present their national recovery plans ahead of the Friday deadline, and the European parliament will vote on the Brexit trade deal.
Minimal protection
Ireland’s Data Protection Commission doesn’t have a lot of friends around Europe, write FT tech regulation correspondent Javier Espinoza and Ireland correspondent Laura Noonan. That’s because the Dublin-based office, which is in charge of enforcing EU’s data protection rules, has proven reluctant to go against Big Tech firms that based their Europe operations in Ireland (for tax and language reasons).
The question of whether the small Irish regulator is failing to police Big Tech companies such as Facebook on behalf of the entire bloc has become a lightning rod for privacy advocates, lawyers and businesses on both sides of the Atlantic.
Ulrich Kelber, Germany’s chief data protection official, recently lamented that Berlin had sent more than 50 complaints about WhatsApp to the Irish authorities, “none of which had been closed to date”.
The European parliament in March said it was “particularly concerned that the Irish data protection authority generally closes most cases with a settlement instead of a sanction and that cases referred to Ireland in 2018 have not even reached the stage of a draft decision”.
On Tuesday, Irish lawmakers will get to do the grilling. A representative from the Irish data protection regulator will testify before the Irish parliament — as will Austrian privacy activist Max Schrems. His complaint against Facebook’s data protection practices led the EU’s top court last year to strike down a data transfer agreement with the US for the second time. (The court had first ruled in 2015.)
Ireland has stepped up its game on EU data protection recently. Days ago, the authority opened an investigation into Facebook after a massive data breach. People close to the Irish data watchdog also said more decisions were coming that could lead to millions of euros in fines. The regulator’s commissioner, Helen Dixon, also pointed out in a written statement that its counterparts in other countries could also step in with probes of tech companies — but they haven’t done so.
Schrems is unconvinced. In his written submission, he argued that the watchdog was not fit for purpose because it has a hard time applying EU law and withstanding legal challenges. Others agree. Johnny Ryan of the Irish Council for Civil Liberties will also testify on Tuesday that the Irish regulator has failed to resolve 98 per cent of cases of EU-wide concern.
Irish lawmakers, meanwhile, are worried that their country will suffer a reputational hit from the data protection debacle as it is already under fire from some EU countries for being a “tax haven”.
“There will be greater and greater unhappiness in Europe if we are seen to be the weak link in terms of enforcing the rights of European citizens,” said Patrick Costello, an Irish member of parliament who sits on the committee.
Chart du jour: Worsening prospects
The FT’s Sarah O’Connor introduces a series arguing for a new deal for the young. A majority of survey respondents believe they will be worse off than their parents were in their careers and on the property ladder. (Find out why)
Two-state problem
Decades-old efforts to resolve the Cyprus conflict are tentatively set to restart on Tuesday in Geneva under UN auspices, but expectations are modest, write FT EU diplomatic correspondent Michael Peel and our reporter in Turkey, Ayla Jean Yackley.
The central problem for the informal three-day meeting is that the positions of the two sides on the Mediterranean island appear to be unbridgeable. Cyprus has been divided since Turkey invaded its northern region in 1974 after a shortlived coup backed by the Greek military junta. The Turkish Cypriot-controlled north later declared itself an independent state, but only Ankara has recognised it as such.
The Turkish Cypriot position has hardened since Ersin Tatar was elected the community’s leader last year. Tatar, a former accountant and a devotee of Turkey’s authoritarian president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, is adamant the de facto partition of Cyprus should become permanent.
Tatar has said he hopes the talks will act as a “reality check” and pave the way to international recognition of northern Cyprus as sovereign — an outcome most observers consider unlikely. Tatar has also argued that Turkish and Greek Cypriots are too different, divided by language and religion, to live in one country after almost five decades of separation.
“We are going to Geneva with a new vision for Cyprus, one based on the realities of the island,” Tatar said in an emailed statement to the FT. Erdogan backed his protégé: “We as Turkey will provide complete support for this vision,” he said after meeting Tatar on Monday.
But a permanent partition of the island is a non-starter for Greek Cypriots and the internationally recognised government of the Republic of Cyprus. They argue a two-state solution would be a violation of previous UN resolutions and agreements between leaders of the two communities on the island.
Tensions between Greece and Turkey have added to the complexity. The countries’ foreign ministers will attend the event as representatives of guarantor nations of Cypriot independence and territorial integrity after the end of British rule in 1960.
It will be the envoys’ first meeting since they quarrelled publicly in Ankara this month, an inauspicious outcome of a gathering aimed at reducing tensions over Cyprus, drilling for hydrocarbons in the eastern Mediterranean and other territorial disputes.
The third Cyprus guarantor nation — the UK — has been circumspect, expressing hopes that all parties in Geneva show “creativity and flexibility”. London’s subdued approach was another sign of how far away a resolution of the almost half-century-old “Cyprus problem” could be.
Two things to watch today
-
France and Germany jointly present their national recovery plans
-
The European parliament votes on the EU-UK trade deal
Notable, Quotable
-
Leading the green revolution could be good for the EU on the international stage, write Frans Timmermans and Josep Borrell. Adopting renewables would make the bloc less dependent on Russia, the European Commission vice-presidents argue.
-
The EU has made good on its promise to bring legal action against AstraZeneca over vaccine supplies, with the commission saying it will sue the company.
-
A Moscow court has banned Alexei Navalny’s foundation after labelling it extremist. (Reuters)
Are you enjoying Europe Express? Sign up here to have it delivered straight to your inbox every workday at 7am CET. To meet the team behind Europe Express, register for our live event on April 29. Do tell us what you think, we love to hear from you: europe.express@ft.com.
Today’s Europe Express team: javier.espinoza@ft.com, laura.noonan@ft.com, michael.peel@ft.com, aylajean.yackley@ft.com, valentina.pop@ft.com. Follow us on Twitter: @javierespFT, @LauraNoonanFT, @Mikepeeljourno, @aylajean, @valentinapop.