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Rt. Hon. Sir Alan Beith MPLiberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Berwick Upon TweedWorking for you and the Berwick upon Tweed Constituency all year roundin Northumberland and in Westminster |
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MEPs secure safeguards in SWIFT bank data sharing deal
July 11, 2010 12:00 AM
North East MEP Fiona Hall has welcomed this week's vote in the European Parliament to approve a revised EU-US agreement on access to European banking data ('SWIFT' agreement) to help track terrorist financing.
In February, the European Parliament blocked an interim deal because of concerns over privacy. The revised deal to improve and put in place data protection safeguards, such as shorter storage times and stronger supervision and redress rights, was led by Liberal Democrat parties from across the EU.
Commenting after the vote, Fiona said:
"This much improved agreement combines security and justice. MEPs rightly insisted that EU privacy standards could not just be brushed aside.
"We had to fight hard to push EU governments to be tougher with the Americans. Without the clout of MEPs - led by the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats in Europe (ALDE) - European citizens would have been left at the mercy of US authorities without privacy safeguards.
"It is thanks to MEPs that the EU will now develop its own capacity to search bank transactions in a targeted way. Then there will be no more need to transfer European data in bulk to the US."
Under the Lisbon Treaty European Parliament consent is needed for all international agreements. An interim 'SWIFT' or 'Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme' agreement was rejected by MEPs in February due to substantial privacy concerns. Bilateral legal assistance agreements have since been used to send US authorities any necessary counterterrorism information.
EU governments approved last week a new text negotiated by the European Commission with the US authorities. MEPs' vote in favour of the agreement today means it will come into force on 1 August 2010. The EU will assess the functioning of the safeguards involved in early 2011.
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