Brussels, 25/06/2009 (Agence Europe) - The EU will soon be opening talks with the United States so that they may continue to use Swift (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) data as part of the fight against terrorism. The telecommunications company established in Belgium, specialised in secure messaging systems for the banking sector, had been accused in 2006 of illegally transferring data to the US authorities as part of the fight against terrorism, via a mirror security server located in the United States (EUROPE 9618 and 9512). Further to this affair, Swift management announced last year that it would set up a new mirror server in Switzerland at the end of 2009 (EUROPE 9521). While Swift recently announced its intention to make the server operational this October, the United States expressed the wish that it might continue to have access to banking data in the context of their terrorist finance tracking programme (TFTP) (EUROPE 9862). The European Commission therefore called on member states for a mandate to be able to begin talks with Washington on arrangements for access to data. The EU Council may be in a position to give its clearance by the end of July. If all goes well, an agreement may be signed in September, applicable in October. (B.C./transl.jl)