Brussels, 25/03/2010 (Agence Europe) - A number of MEPs responded with enthusiasm to the Commission's presentation of a new draft negotiating mandate on a long-term agreement with the United States on the transfer of banking information for the purposes of combating terrorism. A mandate, seeking to reach a new “Swift agreement” this summer was presented on Wednesday by Internal Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström (see EUROPE 10105). The Parliamentary rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE, Netherlands) welcomed this initiative. “The Commission has clearly listened and responded to Parliament's main concerns,” she said. While the proposals still have to be studied in detail, Hennis-Plasschaert says she is “encouraged” by the inclusion of greater transparency, effective rights to redress and rectification, a review mechanism, judicial approval of data requests, limitations on scope and length of data storage, prohibition of data-forwarding to third countries and references to reciprocity whereby the EU would develop its own terrorist finance tracking system. She said the three institutions must now come together “in a spirit of loyal cooperation” to agree on the mandate and red lines for negotiating the definitive agreement. EPP MEPs Manfred Weber (Germany), Simon Busuttil (Malta) and Ernst Strasser (Austria) said that the Commission was “on the right track” and that “lessons were obviously learned” after February's rejection by the Parliament of the previous Swift agreement. “The Parliament will put its focus on the protection of European citizens' rights in the future as well,” they warned. They also called for a European system to be set up similar to the American Terrorist Funding Tracking Program (TFTP), which uses Swift data. Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, UK) called on all parties to get down to work quickly so that a new agreement can be reached as quickly as possible. “I hope that by negotiating a new agreement we can restore the overall reputation of the European institutions in Washington, and show the US that we are serious about standing side-by-side with them in confronting terrorism,” he said. Some MEPs were much more critical. “I welcome that the new EU Commission negotiation mandate has at last explicitly recognised that Parliament has a role to play in the decision on Swift data transfers. The exact substance of the new mandate is, however, unclear and basic ground rules are missing. There is no clear commitment to ensuring that only essential data is provided,” stated Jan Philipp Albrecht (Greens, Germany). For the GUE/NGL, Cornelia Ernst (Germany) said that despite “sweeteners” on data protection, the benefits of an agreement with the United States was not clear. “All these small amendments should not distract from the fact that the US definition of terrorism is broader than the European one and that for technical reasons it is nearly impossible to send specific data instead of larger files,” she regretted, expressing her doubts over the real reasons for an agreement such as this. (B.C./transl.rt)