Brussels, 27/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - Socialist MEPs are calling on the Commission to answer a number of questions concerning the transfer of financial information from SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication) to the US government. “Does the Commission know if highly sensitive personal data linked to financial transfers under the competence of the European Union or its Member States have been provided to the US administration, without the knowledge of the persons concerned or appropriate authorisation by national judicial or other competent authorities?” - Such This was the question clearly asked on Monday by Stavros Lambrinidis (PES, Greek). Given that the movement of capital is an exclusive Community competence, the MEP expressed surprise that the American government, the Member States or the European Central Bank had not informed the Commission about the US initiative. And if they had indeed done so, then why, Mr Lambrinidis, asked, did the Commission not inform the Parliament? On the matter of whether the transfer of such information was in breach of European legislation on the protection of data, the Commission explained on Monday that this was not the case (EUROPE 9219). In its view, the European 1995 directive on the protection of data did not cover the transfer of individual data to a third country for security purposes. Currently, the 25 are discussing such a text but, in any case, “it will not cover transfers made by private companies” but only by governments, the Commission spokesman said. Mr Lambrinidis called on the Commission for an explanation regarding the institutional control of SWIFT at national and European level but also on the advisory role of the company which is largely made up of Member States, central banks and the European Central Bank. On the sidelines of a conference organised on Monday by the EP's Socialist Group on the security of citizens in the fight against terrorism, Jan Marinus Wiersma (PES, NL) deplored what he said could be yet another affair when the private lives of citizens are jeopardised, as was the case for CIA rendition flights. French MEP Martine Roure pointed out that she found it “surprising, to put it mildly, that the European Parliament was not informed about this while examining this very issue (information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds) in the Alvaro report due to be debated and voted on in next week's plenary session” in Strasbourg (codecision). “Which institutions, at EU or member state level, knew about this?” she asked, going on to add that her group will certainly call for clarifications during the plenary session. SWIFT admits providing protected message services to 7,800 financial institutions (banks, brokers' firms, fund management firms) in over 200 countries to ensure transactions such as bank settlements or brokering. The affair has already had an effect in Belgium and the Netherlands where investigations have been launched.
SWIFT, for its part, affirms that the order emanating from the US Finance Ministry was in line with the laws in force.