Brussels, 07/07/2010 (Agence Europe) - The European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) and the Article 29 Data Protection Working Party (G29) are of the view that the Swift agreement, which is due to be adopted by MEPs on Thursday 8 July, does not provide sufficient guarantees on the rights of European citizens (see EUROPE 10175). EDPS Peter Hustinx is particularly critical of bulk transfers which he feels are a break with European data protection principles. He says, too, that there has to be a reduction in the amount of time non-extracted data can be kept (currently five years). In his opinion, the task of assessing US Treasury requests should have been given to a genuine public judicial authority, rather than to Europol, as is provided for in the agreement. The G29 also informed the Parliament of its serious reservations over the agreement, believing that it does not comply with EU law. Firstly, the right to non-discriminatory judicial redress in the United States for individuals whose personal data are processed in the EU is not guaranteed in full. Furthermore, the G29 believes that EU data protection authorities will see their role limited to that of mere “postbox” for assessments made by US Treasury Department employees, when they should be able to get all the relevant information themselves to independently assess it and to ensure full data protection compliance. In addition, the G29 says it is very concerned about bulk transfer to the US of financial information, which may subsequently be widely distributed to law enforcement agencies in both the US and the EU. The conditions for onward transfers, it says, do not meet the guarantees demanded by EU law, including on the length of time (up to five years) data can be retained. The group also wants to make sure that strictly internal European financial transaction data, the so-called SEPA (Single European Payment Area) data, are not transferred because the agreement is ambiguous on this matter. (B.C./transl.rt)