Luxembourg, 03/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission has reached a provisional agreement with the United States on the transfer of banking data in the context of counter-terrorism, said Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström speaking on Thursday 3 June during a lunch with EU home affairs ministers in Luxembourg. “The commissioner is very pleased to have reached an agreement and hopes an official decision will be taken in coming days”, a ministerial source told EUROPE. Malmström was in Washington on Tuesday and Wednesday for talks with American leaders and was to brief state ministers on the state of progress of the talks. Addressing the ministers, she announced “major progress” with regard to data protection, mainly on the question of Europeans' right of appeal in the United States, the same source said. The agreement would be sealed for five years, renewable each year. It may be ended with 6 months notice. The agreement would also designate Europol as the European entity responsible for controlling the legality of US data transfer requests. It was precisely on this point that France and the United Kingdom had reservation as, in order to be envisaged, these new prerogatives of Europol should be the subject of a new European regulation. Coreper should be able to authorise the signing of this agreement in 10 days' time. Failing this, the Spanish Presidency plans to organise an extraordinary Council meeting to approve the decision. The decision, which is therefore expected by the end of June, should be taken by qualified majority. Once signed, the agreement will be subject to the approval of the European Parliament. The Commission trusts that the Parliament vote will be in July, even though it considers September to be a more realistic date. (B.C./transl.jl)