Translation of "Clause de base " (French → English) :

19. Considers that for the special case of countries with which the EU shares fundamental values and common policies for the long term, such as the countries concerned by the ‘new neighbourhood policy’, one might consider signing agreements that go beyond the ‘democracy clause’, based on the sharing of common institutions for promoting democratic principles and human rights, on the example of the Council of Europe and/or other regional agreements;

73. Agrees with the position in the 2005 Report that the human rights clause is a basis for positive engagement on human rights and democracy issues with third countries; emphasises, however, that this cannot exclude the possibility of the temporary suspension of cooperation on the grounds of a breach of the clause; reiterates its call for a sliding scale of measures and a clear system of sanctions to be used with respect to violations of the human rights clause by third countries, and calls on the Council to consider extending qualified majority voting to the decision to adopt restrictive measures at a future appropriate time; reiter ...[+++]ates its demand for a better monitoring and consultation mechanism of the clause, and calls on the Commission and the Council to report annually on breaches of human rights clauses, including those of the Cotonou Agreement, to the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament;

73. Agrees with the position expressed in the 2005 Report that the human rights clause is a basis for positive engagement on human rights and democracy issues with third countries; emphasises, however, that this cannot exclude the possibility of the temporary suspension of cooperation on the grounds of a breach of the clause; reiterates its call for a sliding scale of measures and a clear system of sanctions to be used with respect to violations of the human rights clause by third countries, and calls on the Council to consider extending qualified majority voting to the decision to adopt restrictive measures at a future appropriate tim ...[+++]e; reiterates its demand for a better monitoring and consultation mechanism with respect to the clause, and calls on the Commission and the Council to report annually on breaches of human rights clauses, including those contained in the ACP-EU Partnership Agreement, to the Human Rights Subcommittee of the European Parliament;

For the sake of legal certainty we would prefer a general clause based on a prohibition on unfair trading practices.

Since the use of standard contractual clauses for international data transfers is voluntary as standard contractual clauses are only one of several possibilities under Directive 95/46/EC, for lawfully transferring personal data to a third country, data exporters in the Community and data importers in third countries should be free to choose any of the sets of standard contractual clauses, or to choose some other legal basis for data transfer.

In specific circumstances, the supervisory authorities of the Member States should retain the power to prohibit or suspend a data transfer or a set of transfers based on the standard contractual clauses in those exceptional cases where it is established that a transfer on contractual basis is likely to have a substantial adverse effect on the guarantees providing adequate protection to the data subject.