A month after Europe's high court invalidated an international agreement for the transfer of digital data between the European Union and the United States, the European Commission on Friday said it intends to wrap up discussions on a new deal within three months.

"The Commission has been asked to take swift action: this is what we are doing," Andrus Ansip, European Commission vice president for the Digital Single Market, said in a statement. "The EU and the U.S. are each other's most important trading partners. Data flows between our continents are essential for people and businesses. While alternative tools exist, a safer new Framework is the best solution to protect our citizens and cut red tape for businesses, especially start-ups."

As it now works to hammer out a new agreement with the U.S., the Commission on Friday issued guidance outlining how EU businesses can legally continue transferring Europeans' data to the U.S. in the interim.

"Citizens need robust safeguards to ensure their fundamental rights are protected," EU Commissioner for Justice Vera Jourová said in a statement. "And businesses need clarity during this transition period. Our aim today is to explain under which conditions businesses can lawfully transfer data in this interim period."

The previous Safe Harbor agreement ensured that 4,000-plus European and American tech and non-tech businesses would treat data moving between countries with the same privacy protections as inside the region. That is no longer the case, as of a month ago.

Set up 15 years ago to help companies conduct business, the agreement came under fire following the mass surveillance revelations in the Snowden documents. European watchdogs also wanted to cut ties because U.S. privacy protections are not as strong as they are in Europe.

Jourová on Friday said the EU plans to continue working closely with authorities responsible for the enforcement of data protection law.

"I have stepped up talks with the U.S. towards a renewed and sound framework for transatlantic data flows and will continue these discussions in Washington next week," she added. "Any new arrangement has to meet the requirements of the Court ruling."