SWIFT: new EU-US agreement will be renegotiated next year
17 September 2009
Under pressure from MEPs, the Council of EU ministers has agreed to renegotiate a deal with the US on the transfer of banking data next year.
Under pressure from MEPs, the Council of EU ministers has agreed to renegotiate a deal with the US on the transfer of banking data next year, by which time Parliament may have a final say on such agreements under the Lisbon Treaty. Meanwhile, Parliament adopted a resolution setting out guidelines to ensure privacy is not harmed under the deal being negotiated at present.
In a resolution adopted today MEPs repeated that the data transferred to the US authorities should be processed "only to fight terrorism" and that "storage and use must not be disproportionate" to this objective. MEPs evoked the need to "strike the right balance between security measures and the protection of civil liberties and fundamental rights". EU citizens and enterprises should be granted an equal level of defence rights, and "judicial redress mechanisms" should be set up to prevent abuse.
Members questioned the choice of the legal basis by Council: in July EU ministers decided unanimously to give the European Commission a negotiating mandate without involving Parliament. This, says the resolution, goes against the opinion of Council's legal service which maintains that this matter is of Community competence.
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