Today, Michael McGrath, the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice, the Rule of Law and Consumer Protection, and Denise Wong, Acting Commissioner of Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Commission (PDPC), representing Lew Chuen Hong, Commissioner of the PDPC, met in Singapore.

As evidenced by the 2022 EU-Indo-Pacific Joint Declaration on privacy and the protection of personal data, the EU and Singapore share a common vision to harness the opportunities of the digital transformation through a human-centric approach where the effective protection of personal data plays a crucial role and is a key enabler for cross-border cooperation.

Reflecting this shared vision, the PDPC and the European Commission have stepped up their cooperation in the past years. This has resulted in important results, such as their joint work, in the framework of the ASEAN-EU Strategic Partnership to foster trusted cross-border data flows. In particular, the Joint Guide to the ASEAN Model Contractual Clauses and EU Standard Contractual Clauses has proven to be a valuable tool to assist businesses active in both regions. Through many examples of best practices in this area, it contributes to support the compliance efforts of companies, particularly micro, small and medium enterprises, that seek to participate fully in the digital economy. Both sides welcomed further cooperation to expand such efforts to other regional data protection networks, taking note of the completed mapping of the ASEAN and Ibero-American Data Protection Network’s respective model contractual clauses.

Building on this successful collaboration, the European Commission and PDPC also intend to further develop their partnership on issues of common interest, notably through the exchange of knowledge, experience and best practices to enhance data protection and trusted data flows, including exploring the use of privacy-enhancing technologies, in support of the digital economy and advancing the protection of children in the digital environment, which is a priority area for both sides. They also exchanged views on the many benefits of promoting cooperation among regional data protection networks, and agreed to work towards facilitating such dialogue.

Both sides looked forward to continuing their close cooperation which can contribute to further strengthening the partnership between the EU and Singapore, in line with other bilateral initiatives such as the recently negotiated EU-Singapore Digital Trade Agreement and the EU-Singapore Digital Partnership.