Washington/Brussels, 7 October 2022 (dpa/MIA) - The US has restricted access by secret services to the data transmitted by European citizens, in what is seen as the much needed groundwork for a new legislative deal with the bloc to improve data security. A decree issued by President Joe Biden on Friday provides for stricter requirements for access to data by intelligence services as well as an independent redress mechanism to investigate complaints from Europeans about US intelligence agencies' access to personal data. US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said the measures removed the grounds that led the European Court of Justice to overturn the previous Privacy Shield legal agreement. In July 2020, the ECJ concluded that the level of data protection in the US did not meet EU standards, criticizing above all the far-reaching possibilities of US intelligence services to access data of EU citizens. High-ranking White House officials were also convinced that the new steps taken would suffice as a permanent solution. Based on Biden's decree, the procedure for a so-called adequacy decision, which would certify equivalent data protection standards between the EU and the US, can now begin at EU level. It could take about six months, with the European Data Protection Board as well as the EU member states and the European Parliament also to be involved. The ECJ ruling created great legal uncertainty for businesses regarding data transfer between the US and the EU. Facebook parent company Meta, for example, warned that it might have to shut down Facebook as well as Instagram in case there was no follow-up regulation. The Privacy Shield agreement came into effect in 2016, after the predecessor regulation "Safe Harbor" had also been overturned by the ECJ. The lawsuit in both cases was brought by the Austrian lawyer and data protection activist Max Schrems.