Brussels, 16/11/2009 (Agence Europe) - Time is running short: if they are to conclude an agreement with the United States on access to Swift bank data, it is imperative for EU member states to agree very soon on a common text. Permanent representatives to the EU will meet on Friday 20 November to try to overcome the reservations of a number of member states and find a final compromise on a text. If negotiations with the US fail, new and potentially longer talks will begin under the Lisbon Treaty, which is due to come into force on 1 December (see EUROPE 10013). On Thursday of last week, the Swedish Presidency saw its latest proposals rejected by a group of states - Germany, France, Austria and Finland - and no agreement reached for the next meeting of home affairs ministers in Brussels on 30 November, at which a text was to be approved. The concerns of the group of four countries are over protection of personal data to be sent to the United States and the fact that they can then be communicated to other governments. A number of other delegations, including Greece and the Netherlands, are also reticent about giving their approval.
Under the terms of the draft agreement, the EU would allow Swift to send to the United States the account number, the name of the account holder, his/her address, national identification number, and other personal information, if it is suspected that the person is involved in terrorist activities. Requests for information will have to be as narrow as possible to prevent too much customer information being evaluated by police and intelligence officers. However, if the data requested cannot be clearly identified, “all potentially relevant data shall be transmitted in bulk” to the state requesting them. Eurojust must be informed of any request for information. Any information obtained under the terms of this agreement must be made available to Eurojust and Europol. The data transmitted may be kept in the United States for up to five years before being deleted. These data may also be passed on to third country police forces. The agreement is temporary and is due to run out on 31 January 2011 at the latest. If member states fail to reach agreement by Friday of next week, the legal framework for negotiations will change. The coming into force of the Lisbon Treaty on 1 December will give the European Parliament the right of veto (assent) on the conclusion of international police and legal cooperation agreements. From the very start, Parliament wanted to be involved in these negotiations. However, the chairman of the civil liberties committee Juan Fernando López Aguilar (S&D, Spain) suggested that Parliament would back the compromise. “If an interim agreement were to be concluded before the Lisbon Treaty came into force, it must not extend beyond 12 months and must rigorously observe data protection rights and especially the right to legal redress for those involved,” he said in a press release. “According to the Commission, at this point, these conditions have been met; if the same was true of the text being considered by the Council, we could but be happy,” he added. In his opinion, it was clear that the Parliament would only take a stance on the content of the agreement if it was formally asked, for example, under the terms of the Lisbon Treaty. “Any text that may be signed before the Treaty comes into force will be the sole responsibility of the Council,” he stated.
All that remains, therefore, is for the Presidency to persuade the last few undecided countries to approve the text, which is currently undergoing some redrafting. “First and foremost, the negotiating phase with the United States has been 99% completed. It is now up to the Presidency to find as precise a text as possible to respond to the everybody's expectations,” said a diplomat, suggesting that there was a strong likelihood that a compromise would be reached on Friday. A European source commented: “If we delay the conclusion of an agreement, that means that we will be opening a window of risk. Europeans will not be able to use investigations conducted by the United States into the funding of terrorism, and terrorists will have several months to go about their business freely”. (B.C./transl.rt)