Brussels, 10/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission will not call for the SWIFT-TFTP (Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme) agreement to be suspended. Under this agreement, the EU has shared certain financial information with the United States since 2010. The Commission, thus far, has no evidence to show that the United States has been illegally accessing the system, which is tightly regulated by the agreement. That is what Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom told Parliament in Strasbourg on Wednesday evening. MEPs had been wondering if the agreement with Washington should be suspended until such time as it can be proved that the US has been fully complying with the terms. This debate will be followed by a vote on a resolution at the second session in October.
The EPP is against suspension, as stated Agustin Diaz de Mera (Spain) and Axel Voss (Germany) from the outset. Diaz de Mera told Parliament it would be rash to suspend the agreement, adding: “There are legitimate concerns but one cannot tackle one risk by creating another”. He argued: “An agreement cannot be suspended simply on the basis of a doubt”, even one that is “reasonable”.
That was a point of view shared by Commissioner Malmstrom, who told MEPs that her various exchanges with the United States, including a final meeting in Brussels with Under Secretary for the Treasury David Cohen, had brought no evidence of fraudulent access to SWIFT data. Initially, she had said she had been disappointed by the incomplete responses provided by the US Treasury but, in Strasbourg on Wednesday evening, she seemed satisfied with the answers received. Cohen had assured her in writing that his government had not sought any information from SWIFT, she said. She had also received assurances that no government official had had access to the system. Given all this, in the commissioner's view, the agreement could not be suspended on the basis of allegations from journalists. Nevertheless questions must continue to be asked, she said.
This was a position that surprised Sophie in't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands) who wondered why the Commission contented itself with these answers and did not press its American counterparts more strongly. “The most extraordinary thing”, she said, “is that no one has called for a Europol investigation. We cannot content ourselves with Mr Cohen's answers”. She argued that the least that could be done, if the agreement was not to be suspended, would be to hold an investigation. She said that the future looked darker as a result of these scandals and, in her view, it is almost certain that the Parliament will never again accept any similar bilateral agreement.
The German rapporteur on data protection reform, Jan Albrecht (Greens/EFA) said he was “shocked” that Malmstrom could accept these answers. It was clear, he stated, that “the Americans are not respecting their commitments”. He called for a real investigation and for the agreement to be torn up. (SP/transl.fl)