Brussels, 11/05/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will officially be able to begin negotiations with the Americans towards the conclusion of a long-term agreement between the EU and the US on the transfer of banking data in the fight against terrorism (“Swift”). On Tuesday 11 May, the Council of the EU adopted its negotiation mandate for obtaining such an agreement, which will require adoption by Union member states at qualified majority voting, with the approval of the European Parliament. The objective is to reach a definitive conclusion in June for an agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data as defined in the Trivial File Transfer Protocol (TFTP). On Tuesday, a European source indicated: “Initial contacts have already begun with the US but negotiations will now be able to begin officially”. MEPs rejected the previous draft in February and recently introduced conditions on the content of a future agreement (EUROPE 10133). The content of the negotiating brief has been judged by member states to be satisfactory (EUROPE 10127). Parliament believes that these negotiations take place in a context that is more favourable than previously (EUROPE 10135). In response to parliamentary questions put to her on Monday, Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, predicted that the negotiations with the US would be difficult. With regard to the controversial question on the “bulk” transfer of data to the US Treasury, the commissioner declared: “We can't avoid the fact that there has been such a transfer. The Americans will never abandon this idea because it is part of the system's architecture. We will, however, therefore try and see how we can limit the scope of these bulk transfers”. (B.C./transl.fl)