Brussels, 10/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - Cecilia Malmström, European Home Affairs Commissioner, said on Thursday 10 June that the draft agreement negotiated with the United States on the transfer of banking data for the purpose of combating terrorism (“Swift” agreement) is, in her eyes, a very good agreement. “I would like to point out the considerable improvements we have achieved compared to the interim agreement that was rejected (by the Parliament) in February”, she said, after having taken stock of negotiations with the LIBE committee. “We are very close to finalising a draft EU-US TFTP (Terrorist Financial Tracking Programme) with our US counterparts”, she added. The provisional agreement being finalised will be presented to the College of commissioners on Tuesday 15 June in Strasbourg. Malmström stated that the text met most of the objectives present in the Council mandate and that it took into account the key points of the Parliament resolution. For example, it contains significant guarantees on data protection and provides for rectification, erasure or blocking of inaccurate data. The new text sets out a comprehensive mechanism according to which Europol will verify that US requests for data are within the mandate, and whether data are necessary for the fight against terrorism and its financing before the data is sent to the US. It will also verify whether the request is tailored as narrowly as possible in order to minimise the amount of data transferred. The draft agreement also contains significantly more detailed prerequisites for sending lead information (and not the data as such) to third countries. Bulk data can never be sent to third countries, Malmström states. Prior consent must first be obtained from the competent authorities of the relevant member states where the data concerns an EU citizen or resident. Also, the text provides for a possible EU TFTP system. The draft agreement provides for the Commission to appoint an independent EU person who will monitor the activities of the Swift personnel that control data extraction. The EU will provide, on a regular basis, a detailed review of data protection compliance. A 5-year period has been retained for retention of non-extracted data - a period that may be reduced after three years. On the subject of redress, the agreement mentions that non-discriminatory treatment should be foreseen, as well as administrative redress and a guarantee to have judicial redress means. (B.C./transl.jl)