Brussels; 27/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 27 November, Cecilia Malmström, the European commissioner for home affairs, rejected repeated calls from the European Parliament to terminate a number of agreements concluded with the US, particularly the Swift/TFTP agreement on the transfer of banking transactions and the PNR agreements on passenger data. “We do not suspend international agreements on the basis of press articles alone”, she stated.
Following two months of official consultations with the US, following accusations of espionage by the US National Security Agency (NSA), Malmström said that there was no proof at all that these agreements had been breached and that the two agreements were functioning “in line” with the provisions laid down.
With regard to the TFTP agreement (Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme), the Commission decided to conclude this consultation phase, which could, possibly, lead to requests for changes or a suspension decision. Malmström has met the US Under-secretary to the Treasury, David Cohen, twice and has had very long telephone conversations with him. She said that she had received every guarantee that this agreement had not been breached. The report adopted by the Commission on Wednesday even said that the agreement had proved its worth in the area of terrorism prevention. The Commission indicated that “the TFTP had allowed for important intelligence to be gathered and thanks to which it had been possible to detect terrorist plots and even track down those involved”. The commissioner said that, recently, information obtained through the TFTP had been used, for example, to investigate the Boston Marathon attacks in April 2013, terrorist threats during the Olympic Games in London and training in Syria of terrorists based in the EU. She added that TFTP data had been an essential source of information on networks used to fund terrorist organisations. She explained that these data helped to update information on new methods for funding terrorism and identify people in the US or European Union who are involved. Over the course of the past three years, in response to a total of 158 requests made by EU member states (under Article 10) the TFTP identified 924 lines of enquiry, explained the report.
Although the commissioner had decided to conclude official consultations with Washington on this issue, another examination of this agreement is planned for spring 2014. A communication adopted on Wednesday also looks at a possible European monitoring system on the funding of terrorism, as called for by the European Parliament. A communication on the subject was presented in 2012. The Commission has put the subject on the table again in order to say quite clearly that this time the European system in this connection cannot be set up overnight.
On the question of the EU-US PNR agreement on the transfer of European airline passenger data, which entered into force in July 2012, the Commission concluded in another report that, in applying the agreement, the US authorities respected the standards and conditions that it contained. The US authorities are also respecting their obligations with regard to passengers' rights of access and have also set up a regular control mechanism to prevent illegal discrimination. Sensitive data masking and removal obligations have been respected. Data sharing with US national agencies and third countries complies with the terms of the agreement, indicates the report. Another examination will take place in the first half of 2015.
On Wednesday, the Commission adopted two other documents, one on the way in which the so-called Safe Harbour agreement is working. This agreement allows US and European companies to exchange the personal data of their users. This assessment of Safe Harbour was steered through by Commissioner Viviane Reding, who, before the summer, considered how reliable Safe Harbour was. The Commission is undertaking a more critical examination this time and on Wednesday proposed to the US authorities that they fulfil 13 conditions in an effort to avoid any possible suspension of this agreement. Such a suspension could potentially penalise the biggest web groups. These recommendations focus on transparency, appeals and the US authorities' access. The US companies are particularly being called on to set out their confidentiality policies publicly on their websites and to clearly explain the ways in which compensation can be obtained through an alternative resolution mechanism included in the Safe Harbour agreement. False declarations regarding companies' compliance with Safe Harbour would also be subject to investigation. Companies will also have to clearly explain the conditions in which processed data can be accessed by the US authorities.
The Greens/EFA Group at the European Parliament said that the Commission should remain firm on data protection and, according to Jan Philipp Albrecht, is right to make exchange of information dependent on compliance with European data protection standards. He said, however, that it is regrettable that the Commission had completely ignored the Parliament's request of 23 October to suspend the banking data transfer exchange agreement with the US. He said that it was public knowledge that the US secret services had access to the data of the SWIFT service provider by way of cyber attack and not by going through an official agreement.
The leader of the S&D at the EP, Hannes Swoboda, said that the Commission had said a lot but had still not protected Europeans. He said that Safe Harbour was still not safe and hoping for improvements from the US to this agreement. He said that suspending this mechanism could harm European companies.
Manfred Weber (EPP, Germany) said that the EU and US had to develop a high level of data protection and, if the answers provided by the US proved insufficient, the Commission should suspend the Safe Harbour agreement. (SP/transl.fl)