Brussels, 17/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - The Commission does not share the Parliament's view on implementation of the EU/US TFTP (Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme) agreement allowing Americans to gain access to banking data of Europeans in order to combat terrorism.
On Wednesday 16 March, during a debate on civil liberties, MEPs had expressed great concern regarding implementation of the agreement, saying they had been “betrayed”, especially regarding data protection, which is one of the conditions they had set for validating the agreement, and also regarding Europol's way of ensuring protection.
In line with the Europol internal report published 5 March, MEPs mainly deplored the fact that the 4 requests for data transmission addressed by the US to Europol had been based on insufficient grounds, not allowing Europol to verify compliance with the agreement, said Isabel Cruz, who presides over the Europol joint control authority, ACC, responsible for oversight of data protection. This information was communicated orally by the US authorities that convinced Europol to forward the data, Cruz said, without the content of the information being known.
This statement of fact and criticism of Europol has been refuted by the Commission, which published its assessment on Thursday 17 March. In a press release, Commissioner Cecilia Malmström said she felt that all relevant elements of the agreement had been implemented in line with the provisions, including on data protection. Also, the positive report confirms that Europol has set the necessary procedures in place in a professional manner and in line with the agreement.
Paradoxically, however, the Commission does take up a number of criticisms. It considers that the way the US authorities make their requests could be improved, noting that “oral briefings” are insufficient. It therefore calls on them to provide more detailed written requests and more targeted written justifications. The Commission also recommends increasing the programme's transparency and strengthening Europol verification procedures so that US requests are based on verifiable fact. (S.P./transl.jl)