Vice-President of IBM Cloud EMEA, Agnieszka Bruyère, held the opening statement of the EU Cloud Compliance Summit 2021, announcing the approval of the EU Cloud CoC by the Belgian Data Protection Authority and the accreditation of SCOPE Europe as its monitoring body.

Bruyère gave us an insightful overview of the uniqueness and importance of the EU Cloud CoC and its approval. As she rightfully stressed, up to now, there was a lack of reliable and easy tool to assess the compliance of cloud computing services, which created uncertainty to Cloud Users as well as Cloud Service Providers. Ending this period, according to Bruyére, the 20^th of May marked a milestone, which will change and build trust in the cloud computing industry.

Also providing interesting insights on the journey that leads to the approval of the EU Cloud CoC and the accreditation of SCOPE Europe, Agnieszka Bruyére underlined how proud she is of IBM, contributing to this important project and being part of this broad community.  

Watch the full statement above. 

Belgium State Secretary for Digitization delivered a powerful message while addressing the approval of the EU Cloud CoC and accreditation of SCOPE Europe. Mr. Michel congratulated all stakeholders involved and affirmed that this initiative attests to the potential of collaborations among the industry, public and regulatory authorities.

Furthermore, the Secretary stressed that given the complexity of data protection law and regulations, providing appropriate guidance to both controllers and processers is extremely important, especially for SMEs. In that regard, the EU Cloud CoC emerges as an important tool to guarantee that rules and obligations are clear, which supports the necessary building of trust, indispensable element for citizens to engage in the digital transformation.

Watch the full statement above.

After congratulating all those involved in the approval of the EU Cloud CoC and accreditation of SCOPE Europe, Mr. O’Donohue has rightfully emphasized the importance of this milestone to ensure the appropriate translation of GDPR principles into practical and workable tools.   

Furthermore, the Director Future Networks at DG Connect addressed the vital role of the industry in supporting the implementation of state-of-art data protection, especially within a highly innovative environment such as cloud computing. Moreover, he affirmed that the EU Cloud CoC is a baseline upon which future initiatives shall be built to continuously guarantee the meeting of European standards.

Watch the full statement above. 

Chairman of the Belgian Data Protection Authority, David Stevens, has joined two segments of the EU Cloud Compliance Summit. During his first intervention as a keynote speaker, he walked the audience through the reasons why the EU Cloud CoC become the very transnational code of conduct to be approved under GDPR and SCOPE Europe the first accredited monitoring body.

According to Mr. Stevens, the key elements that make this instrument unique consist of its broad scope – covering all cloud offerings from infrastructure, through software and platform services –, its open nature which ensures suitability for the overall cloud community, including SMEs, and finally the transparency provided by the Code’s structure.  

Watch the full statement above.

“The code sets forward clear actionable and verifiable controls to protect personal data in accordance with the EU standard of care. Adherence to the Code enables hundreds of millions of EU users to safely participate in digitalization, innovation and economic growth”.

“We have been thrilled to see and contribute to this effort over the last 4 years […] we, as part of this announcement, are thrilled to share that we, ourselves at TrustArc, have made the EU Cloud CoC standards available within our platform and very specifically we are excited to share that our brain new data driven privacy management solution, called privacy central, has incorporated in the EU Cloud CoC”. 

“We are pleased that the EU Cloud CoC forges the high constant standard of data protection and the necessary room for continuous development and improvement in the cloud market. We look forward to working with all member partners for the joining efforts under the Eu Cloud CoC, it is our great honor to have this opportunity”. 

“This joined effort between public authorities and private companies will create transparency eliminate legal uncertainties and will establish an entirely new balance between interests of all involved parties in the cloud sector”.

“We appreciate the strong leadership by SCOPE Europe, we are proud to be part of this community which has not only invested a lot of time and resources in the development of the Code, but it is also working hard to develop sound and lasting solutions for the cloud market in Europe”.

“The EU Cloud CoC is a huge leap forward towards transparency, accountability, efficiency and standardization in respect of privacy for all cloud service providers […] as comprehensible and reliable framework for GDPR compliance”.

“As cloud services has become increasingly integral to our daily lives […], we believe that codes of conduct serve a vital role in cloud service providers trust […] The EU Cloud Code of Conduct is key to demonstrate how cloud services providers can meet high data protection standards”.

“We have been a member of the EU Cloud CoC for several years and believe this is important for the fast-growing SME segment within the EU to show compliance […] we think the Code will help us to show trust, not only for organisations within the EU, but also for other organisations around the globe”.

“The ability to protect rights of millions of people by fostering an environment of innovation and growth has never been more urgent and the EU Cloud CoC is the combination of years of work and does exactly that”.