Brussels, 23/04/2010 (Agence Europe) - With there being too many ministers missing from the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Brussels on Friday 23 April, the Spanish Presidency was obliged to postpone the adoption of two important decisions. One is on the adoption of a negotiating mandate for the conclusion of an agreement with the United States on the transfer of banking data for counter-terrorism purposes (the Swift agreement). The second decision concerns the continued development of the second generation of the Schengen Information System (SIS II). Spanish Home Affairs Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba delayed the decisions on the two issues until the General Affairs and Foreign Affairs Council on 10 May. Before a vote can be taken in Council, there must be a quorum. This is reached when more than half the number of ministers are present. There were not enough ministers, Rubalcaba said, stating that the low turn-out (in all, 12 ministers out of 27; 14 are required to form a quorum) was due to changes in the agenda and place of the meeting resulting from the disruption of air traffic after the eruption of the Eyjafjöll volcano in Iceland.
Even though there was no formal adoption, member states nevertheless reached political agreement on the Swift agreement and on conclusions on SIS II.
The negotiating mandate on the Swift agreement between the EU and the United States has been agreed politically, the Spanish minister announced at a press conference. The aim is to conclude an agreement in June on the treatment and transfer of financial messaging data for the US Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP). The delay in the formal adoption of the mandate suited France, which still had a parliamentary reservation on the text, but this is due to be lifted on 5 May. Adoption of the mandate on 10 May will also allow European Parliament voting on its Swift resolution, scheduled for 6 May. “I now intend to begin exploratory discussions with member states at the start of May and to move forward as soon as the mandate is officially adopted,” European Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström announced. She said that the current “security gap”, which has existed since January, when the European Parliament rejected the previous agreement, had to be remedied. She said that she would ensure that data were transferred only for counter-terrorism purposes and that appeals by Europeans in the United States would be possible on a non-discriminatory basis. “I hope we will find a solution to bulk transfer. Even if we cannot change the system, we have to see how we can limit it,” she said.
Member states also unanimously agreed, though without adopting them, two conclusions on the continued development of SIS II. The system successfully came through the first technical trials, named Milestone 1, success in which was a prerequisite for being able to continue development of SIS II, Rubalcaba stated. However, “a few secondary reservations” had been put by some member states, he said. Three countries are unhappy with the conclusions: Austria, France and Germany. They feel the outcome of the tests was not sufficiently conclusive to be able to hope that the system will be up and running by the end of 2011. “These trials did not fully meet the criteria laid down. They did not take place in genuinely operational conditions,” said one diplomat. Equally, the cost of SIS II - around €90 million, compared with the €41 million needed for the alternative “SIS 1 + RE” system - is felt to be too high; the three countries have to be able, however, to form a blocking minority in order to swing the SIS II project towards a replacement scenario. A second round of trials, Milestone 2, where again full success will be required if implementation of SIS II is to be continued, is scheduled for the end of the year, at best. This time, the test will be full scale, that is, with all 27 member states, whereas Milestone 1 only involved five countries (Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, Luxembourg and Portugal) with a total of 15 million pieces of constant flow data (less of a risk than intermittent flow). At full capacity, the system will have to be able to deal with the 32 million pieces of data currently contained in the SIS database, an amount that could treble in the coming years. In June, the European Commission will publish a new timetable and budget estimate for the continuation of SIS II development.
Also because of there not being a quorum, several A points which were to have been approved on Friday (see EUROPE 10124), will now be adopted on Monday 26 April at the General Affairs and Defence Council. (B.C./transl.rt)