Washington, 24/06/2010 (Agence Europe) - Given the risk of further rejection of the Swift agreement by the European Parliament, US President Barack Obama, in person, is throwing his whole weight into concluding an agreement between his country and the EU on the Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP) in the aim of countering terrorism, a senior official of the US Treasury Department said on Wednesday 23 June. “This is the most precious programme we have to combat terrorist financing (…). Concerns in the US go all the way up to the level of president. Our president is personally aware of the value of this programme and is very pleased to see that it is being restored and that the EU and the US reach an agreement to close the security gap”, said Adam Szubin, Director of Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), speaking to journalists in Washington.
After less than one month of discussion, the EU and the United States are now reaching a final agreement allowing the Americans to regain access to the banking data of Europeans held by the company, Swift, via its Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme. Meeting on Wednesday 23 June, the ambassadors of the EU member states showed their approval of the latest draft Swift agreement negotiated by the European Commission with the US. Despite some uncertainty on the part of Germany, only France and Poland still express parliamentary reservation, but it is expected such reticence will soon be lifted. The Council should therefore be able to accept the draft text, in written procedure, and its signature next Monday or, failing this, on Tuesday, during the Agriculture Council. This step forward by the Council was greatly facilitated by the positive signal given on the draft agreement by a majority of the various political groups at the European Parliament - the EPP, S&D and ALDE Groups whose rapporteur, Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany), indicated that they were in favour of the compromise reached by the Commission. The vote in plenary should therefore take place on 7 July, which will thus put an end to the several months of fierce fighting over this dossier.
On Tuesday 22 June, the European Parliament had requested the Spanish EU Presidency to renegotiate part of the agreement finalised between the Commission and the United States so that the EU may gain increased control during data extraction on American soil. The chairman of the civil liberties committee (LIBE) at the European Parliament, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, had written with this in mind to the Spanish home minister, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba. It was already foreseen that the Commission should appoint an independent European to oversee the activities of Swift personnel for data extraction control (EUROPE 10157). MEPs, however, also called for the EU to have more right to know what data are being extracted from the Swift database, and they also want the European appointee to have at least the same rights as those enjoyed by Swift personnel on the spot. Sources familiar with the dossier say the Commission has reached a satisfactory compromise on this issue with the United States, thus allowing reservation expressed by MEPs to be lifted.
All eyes are now turned towards the European Parliament. The United States, in particular, trusts the Parliament will be able to vote positively in favour of the agreement. “In the next stage, the Council will sign the new agreement and forward it to the Parliament. We hope the Parliament will approve a new agreement and allow the data transfer to resume”, Szubin said, underlining that the first week of July is a “very important juncture” for the TFTP. In order to show that they have understood the lessons learned from failure of the previous agreement, which was rejected in February by the European Parliament, the United States highlights a series of concessions intended to reassure MEPs on data protection. The new agreement contains “several significant improvements”, Szubin said, citing the right of individuals to access their data, to rectify data and to carry out administrative and legal appeal. On the subject of appeal, the Treasury Department even undertook to ensure that Europeans have equivalent rights to those normally granted under the Privacy Act, only to US nationals. This means that Europeans who consider there has been misuse of data concerning them may, by contacting those in charge of data protection in their respective countries, appeal to the US Treasury. In terms of oversight, a European Union team will be set in place to assess implementation of the TFTP on a regular basis. Its work will begin 6 months after the entry into force of the agreement and results will be forwarded to the Commission and Parliament. The inspector general for the US Treasury will also play a role of oversight and audit. The EU, for its part, may appoint an independent observer to control TFTP audit tasks. “With respect to the internal safeguards and the oversight, the right of redress, rectification and access, we believe this agreement is substantially strengthened in a way that speaks to all of the core European concerns that have been raised and this is an agreement we are very proud of. It resulted from a very intensive negotiation and we made significant concessions, some difficult concessions in the process of these negotiations but we think the ultimate result is very strong and speaks for itself”, Szubin concluded. (B.C./transl.jl)