Two major votes in the European Parliament — one on data protection, the other on NSA surveillance — could have important ramifications for US-EU relations, particularly the current TAFTA/TTIP negotiations. As we wrote back in October last year, the EU‘s proposed data protection legislation has been one of the most contested proposals in recent years, with massive lobbying from US companies concerned about the effects on their online businesses in Europe. In the end, there was extremely broad support from the European Parliament for the new data protection rules: 621 votes in favor, 10 against and 22 abstentions. Here are the main points as summarized in the official press release: