Brussels, 16/03/2009 (Agence Europe) - Former French anti-terrorist judge Jean-Louis Bruguière has said transferring SWIFT's global data centre from the United States to Switzerland would not be without problems for security. “There is a serious risk that this decision might seriously compromise the effectiveness of the (American) Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) and consequently of the fight against terrorism,” Bruguière said in an interview published on 11 March on the internet site of La Tribune. For several years, the United States illegally used the TFTP to gather information on European citizens. On the basis of a confidential report prepared by Bruguière for the European Commission, Europe now takes the view that the programme has proved very useful in terms of combating terrorism and protecting data (see EUROPE 9841). Under the new set-up, SWIFT will remove from America all European data and part of the data from the other continents, virtually all the data, and transfer them to two servers, one in the Netherlands and the other in Switzerland, Bruguière said. “Negotiations will have to be conducted at an appropriately high level so that the US Treasury can still access SWIFT data to avoid damage to the operation of a tried and tested mechanism in combating terrorism,” he said. A diplomat noted: “When the Americans ask to continue to have access to the data, it will be difficult to refuse”. He went on to say that the TFTP had helped thwart attempted terrorist attacks involving members of Al-Qaeda. (B.C./transl.rt)