On the picture Věra Jourová, European Commissioner for Justice. By Guido Lanfranchi. In the wake of the European Commission’s report on the EU-US Privacy Shield program, the US Department of Commerce welcomed the program’s progress and success and pledged to further cooperate with its European counterparts to support transatlantic trade. On December 19^th, the European Commission released its evaluation report of the EU-US Privacy Shield, contributing to the program’s second annual review. Privacy Shield is a framework regulating the compliance with data protection requirements when transferring personal data from Europe to the United States, in support of transatlantic commerce. Since its creation in August 2016, more than 4200 companies, both small and large, and belonging to a wide range of sectors, have made binding commitments to adhere to Privacy Shield’s standards.

In the wake of the Commission’s report, US Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services at the US Commerce Department, Mr. Jim Sullivan, defined Privacy Shield as a success, praising the contributions of different stakeholders, notably the US government and the EU. Both parties have recently been engaged in the review process, which has featured detailed discussions about both commercial aspects and national security-related elements. The review process involved high-level officials from both the US and the EU side, notably US Secretary of Commerce Mr. Wilbur Ross, European Commissioner for Justice Ms. Věra Jourová, as well as a number of senior officials from different branches of the two administrations. DAS Sullivan noted that the European Commission acknowledged the work done by the US, for instance regarding the implementation of the first annual review’s recommendations, as well as enforcement efforts by the US Federal Trade Commission and several initiatives by the US intelligence community. Some tension between the US and the EU sides still persists on the nomination of a permanent ombudsman, to be nominated at the level of Under Secretary in the US administration. While recognizing the importance of the issue, DAS Sullivan stressed that the confirmation process will take place as soon as possible, but also underlined that the system is already fully operational under the ad interim leadership of State Department’s Ms. Manisha Singh. Moreover, while the entering into force of the GDPR regulation prompted an increased amount of requests and thus created a temporary backlog in the recertification process, such backlog has been by now fully addressed – Ms. Catilyn Fennessy, Head of the Privacy Shield team, stressed. Other issues, such as the investigation on Facebook in the wake of the recent scandals on data handling, still remain open. Yet, the Privacy Shield team remains active in fully investigating any potential misbehaviour, and in making sure that all companies subscribing to the Privacy Shield program continue to fulfil their self-certification requirements. As DAS Sullivan put it, the US is “working very diligently to do what we can to avoid that kind of uncertainty [for businesses] and make sure that the thousands of companies and the hundreds of thousands of employees and the nearly 1.1 trillion dollars in transatlantic trade continue to benefit from Private Shield.”

H.E. Mr Jens-Otto Horslund, Ambassador of Denmark and H.E. Mr. Fernando Arias, OPCW Director-General.

Denmark Contributes DKK 600,000 to OPCW Team to Identify Perpetrators of Chemical Weapons Use

The Ambassador of El Salvador H.E. Mr.  Agustín Vásquez Gómez  and  artist Rodolfo Oviedo Vega. By Roy Lie Atjam. The Latin-America Table, Societait De Witte, organized a presentation featuring the Salvadorian artist Mr. Rodolfo Oviedo Vega. The Ambassador of El Salvador H.E. Mr. Agustín Vásquez Gómez honoured the event with his presence and subsequent introduction of Oviedo Vega. Mr. Rodolfo Oviedo Vega’s presentation dealt with Salvadorian contemporary art. Fine art came to the shores of El Salvador after its independence in 1821. A century later (1917) abstract works became famous.

Mr. Rodolfo Oviedo Vega studied in El Salvador, he also studied and lived in Kerala India for two years. The memory of his journeys and the places where he has lived are realized in his works. Rodolfo Oviedo Vega ‘works are abstract (abstract is a visual language), he is inspired by what he calls Sagrada art such as the indigenous god of corn and La Morenita, In general, Rodolfo is inspired by Sagrada art and the places he visits during is travel. Mr. Oviedo has used a different kind of materials and techniques: silk, silver thread, Indian embroidery, sand from the Himalaya or the beaches of Salvador, barks of the coconut palm, banana tree leaf. There is sand from a desert in Iran, there are also personal objects; the works are not ordinary canvas, but are fabrics that he has collected on trips. Architectural elements frequently appear in Rodolfo Oviedo Vega’s work – railings, windows, arches, often in somber colours that emphasize their geometric armatures – and show his interest in urban space and construction. Rodolfo Oviedo Vega’s work is profoundly sensitive, human and emotional, all the while remaining abstract.

Oviedo Vega has an art gallery in Paris and also has activities in Panama. Oviedo Vega is now trying his hand at the niche market of fragrances. He has his own label; the fragrances will be on the market soon. It is been a pleasure getting to know the Salvadorian, Rodolfo Oviedo Vega.