EU governments "headless chickens" over bank account access SWIFT agreement

12.11.00pm GMT Tue 9th Feb 2010

EU governments in the Council of Ministers have been unable to reach a common view in response to MEPs' concerns about an interim agreement allowing American counter-terrorism authorities access to European bank transaction data managed by the SWIFT company. The US gets monthly bulk transfers and uses this data in its 'Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme'.

The European Parliament is scheduled to vote on Thursday on whether to reject the interim agreement. Without substantive assurances on a timetable for negotiation for a long-term agreement and on stricter safeguards, MEPs are likely to confirm the committee-level rejection of last week.

Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman and London MEP Sarah Ludford, who is also chair of the European Parliament delegation to the US, said:

"This US-EU bank access deal is a bad one for Europeans, a sellout of our privacy. The legitimate hunt for terrorists must not be an excuse to throw data protection to the winds. If the European Parliament has to show the red card, this will be because EU governments are proving unable to protect our citizens' human rights."

"If a long-term SWIFT agreement is allowed to be formulated on the current basis, we will have sold the pass for ever on standards of privacy for transatlantic data-sharing."

"EU ministers are acting like headless chickens. They can still prevent a train crash, but only if they convince us that genuinely better safeguards will follow soon in the planned long-term agreement and that they will treat us as a genuine partner in negotiations. The secrecy, delays and ineptness in the EU Council contrasts with much smarter footwork by the Americans."

"Piecemeal US information demands and endless Washington-Brussels discussions on data protection must end. The urgent need is for a single comprehensive accord bracketing the targeted sharing of information for security and law enforcement with real reassurance that personal data will not be abused."

ENDS

Note to Editors

The 'SWIFT' or 'Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme' agreement was signed by EU governments with the US authorities on 30 November 2009 and entered into force provisionally at the beginning of February for 9 months. It replaces an informal and until 2006 unknown arrangement whereby the US just issued administrative subpoenas to SWIFT, a private company that processes worldwide including European financial transactions. But the removal of a server to Europe, away from US territory and jurisdiction, necessitated a new legal agreement. Under the Lisbon treaty the agreement needs MEP consent in order to be formally 'concluded'; a rejection vote would terminate it. MEPs want EU governments to involve them in discussions for the mandate for the planned long-term agreement, not just give the Parliament a 'take-it-or-leave-it' role as now.

The EU Council of Ministers waited until the end of January to reply to a series of letters going back to mid-December from European Parliament President Buzek; they have had 2 meetings in the last week but have been unable to agree on how to respond to MEPs' threat to torpedo the interim agreement.