The European Commission adopted, on Tuesday 15 November, the sixth joint review of the implementation of the EU-US agreement on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), which was signed in 2010.
Between 2019 and 2021, the TFTP “has facilitated more than 58,000 investigative leads that have enabled Member States to advance investigations, including some into terrorist attacks in the EU”.
The Commission, based on information received from the US Treasury or Europol, “is broadly satisfied that the agreement is being properly implemented”.
Europol performs its verification tasks in full compliance. The control mechanism ensures that data processing is carried out in accordance with the conditions laid down in the agreement. All non-extracted data shall be deleted no later than five years after receipt.
“The TFTP remains a key instrument to provide timely, accurate and reliable information about activities associated with suspected acts of terrorist planning and financing”.
But the US Treasury could tailor its request “as strictly as possible to minimise the volume of data requested. It could also review the need to retain extracted data to ensure that it is retained for no longer than is necessary for the specific investigation or prosecution for which it is used”.
Link to the report: https://aeur.eu/f/42o (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)