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21 April 2010

SWIFT: Spanish Presidency guarantees no mass transfer of financial data to USA


The concerns of the EP on a new agreement for transferring financial data to the United States will be taken into account in the negotiations, especially the main fear expressed by MEPs over a possible "wholesale" transfer of data, Secretary of State for the EU Diego López Garrido said.

The Secretary of State for the EU, Diego López Garrido, and the European Commission today guaranteed Parliament that they will take into account the majority of its requirements in negotiations on a new agreement for the transfer of financial data to the United States as part of the fight against terrorism (SWIFT).

 The concerns of the European Parliament (EP) on a new agreement for transferring financial data to the United States will be taken into account in the negotiations, especially the main fear expressed by MEPs over a possible "wholesale" transfer of data.

 According to López Garrido, the governments of the EU share this position and believe that an "indiscriminate" transfer should not be allowed, but that the extraction of the data should  only take place when there are "justified reasons" for thinking that the citizen could be linked to terrorism or terrorist financing networks.

He also guaranteed, as required by the EP, that the future agreement will uphold fundamental rights and will offer citizens the right to appeal if they believe their data has been misused, under the same conditions as American citizens.
In February, the EP vetoed the implementation of the previous agreement between the EU and the US, known as SWIFT after the name of the company that manages the majority of data transfers in financial transactions.

Since then the European Parliament has presented Member States with a proposed mandate to renegotiate an agreement with Washington.
Cecilia Malmström, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, also wanted to offer guarantees to MEPs and went on to say that, in the negotiations with the US, Brussels will try to reduce the volume of information that is transferred to US authorities.

As López Garrido today confirmed, the governments of the EU will approve the document on Friday in Brussels so that the EC can immediately start negotiations with the aim of concluding them in June


© Council of the European Union


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