EU tells US: hands off our bank data

gallery

The European Parliament has voted against allowing the US to analyse bank data transferred from citizens in the EU, for the purpose of terrorist investigations.

An agreement between the European Commission and the US had been reached provisionally, which would have allowed the US Treasury Department to investigate the funding behind terrorism this side of the pond.

However when it came to the crunch and parliament voted, the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP), also known as SWIFT, was thrown out.

The commissioner for Home Affairs, Cecilia Malmström, was disappointed at the result but hopeful that something could still come from the proposed plans.

"I remain convinced that the programme enhances the security of our citizens,” she said in a statement. “It would be the role of the Commission to make sure that all the relevant safeguards for EU citizens' privacy and data protection are duly included in any possible future agreement.”

She added: “In spite of this set back, I hope we will be able to agree a text in the near future that will give us greater security, more data protection and a useful cooperation tool with US authorities.”

Viviane Reding, the EU's commissioner for Justice, Fundamental Rights and Citizenship and vice president of the European Commission, also believed that a new agreement could be reached but would not complain about the lack of support so far.

She added: "The European Parliament has spoken. The European Commission, which is accountable to the European Parliament, needs to respect this.”

On the other side of the Atlantic, they were less than impressed with the outcome.

The US mission to the EU said in a statement: "This decision disrupts an important counter-terrorism program which has resulted in more than 1500 reports and numerous leads to European governmental authorities and has contributed significantly to collaborative counter-terrorism efforts between the United States and Europe."

Email to a friend

Print this page