Brussels, 13/07/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 13 July, as planned, the European Commission adopted a communication outlining the main options for establishing a European Terrorist Finance Tracking System (TFTS). The Commission explains that the system will mainly aim at limiting the transfer of personal data to third countries and to the US in particular, which today has access to some information on financial transactions under the TFTF/Swift programme, and at cutting off terrorists' access to funding.
In its communication, the Commission has therefore set out various possible structures for a European TFTS with a view, on one hand, to reassuring the EP on obligations to be met regarding the protection of data and fundamental rights of citizens and, on the other, giving member states a first glimpse at what the system might cost.
The Commission sets out the details of three possible solutions - a purely centralised system managed by EU agencies such as Europol, a centralised system that would give member states the ability to carry out financial data analysis and, finally, a system that is half-way between a Community and member state system embodied in a European platform that groups all national units for tracking terrorist financing.
This last option would be the most expensive, the Commission states, amounting to up to €47 million (€43 million for the EU and nearly €4 million for member states) and annual costs of over €10 million. The least costly solution would remain the intermediary option, namely the centralised level, which would be competent on the technical front but not for analysis. The total in this case would be around €39 million. Generally speaking and whatever solution is chosen, the Commission considers the cost of implementing TFTS at between €33-47 million for initial costs and additional costs of between €7 and 11 million.
On 12 July, the EP civil liberties committee had called on the Commission, in the report by ALDE member Sophie In't Veld, to set out more costing details for counter-terrorism measures taken in the EU. In a press release, the ALDE nonetheless expressed disappointment at the TFTS communication, saying that the Commission should have submitted a legal mechanism. Alexander Alvaro spoke of the demands saying they did not want a copy of the US intelligence system, but rather a targeted, effective data analysis system that has clear access rights and swiftest possible cessation of current bulk transfers of data to the United States. (S.P./transl.jl)