Brussels, 23/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - EU27 foreign ministers will, on Monday 27 July, give the European Commission a mandate for beginning negotiations with the United States so that it may continue to use data retained by the company Swift in its Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP). The permanent representatives with the EU reached a consensus on Thursday 23 July on the content of the negotiating brief requested by the European Commission. Only France filed a parliamentary reservation, which is expected to be lifted on Monday. The United States had asked the Europeans to be able to continue having access to data on European financial transactions based in the Netherlands despite the scheduled cessation of automatic transfer of such data to the US Treasury (EUROPE 9929). The negotiating brief on which the EU27 agreed concerns a draft agreement lasting 12 months, instead of the 24 months initially foreseen. This shorter time aims in particular at pleasing the European Parliament which was highly critical about the idea of hastily negotiating an agreement with the Americans (EUROPE 9939). The agreement will be concluded on the basis of the 3rd pillar (police and judicial cooperation) in which the EP is simply consulted. During a debate organised on Wednesday by the EP committee on civil liberties, the vice-president of the European Commission, Jacques Barrot, sought to reassure MEPs. He above all said that, during his visit to the US in March, he had noted a “new climate” due to the new administration in power, which refuses the aberrations that the fight against terrorism has known in the past. “The Swift system is changing (…). This is an excellent opportunity to renegotiate an agreement with the US”, he said. He above all confirmed that the future agreement with Washington would only be an “interim” agreement and that a new agreement would be negotiated, albeit this time “under the Lisbon empire” with a Parliament as “co-decider”. In the meantime, “for these few months, it seemed desirable to negotiate an interim agreement. Would be it be reasonable to suspend surveillance given that Judge Bruguière has told the parliamentary committee this has allowed a number of attacks to be prevented?”, he said (EUROPE 9841). “We must put this affair into proportion. And this agreement will have every guarantee in terms of data protection and reciprocity”, Mr Barrot assured. In response to these comments, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert (ALDE, NL) hoped the documents on negotiations underway would be communicated to MEPs. Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) said that, before negotiating any international agreement, the Union should have an “acceptable” system for protecting personal data. Diplomats consider the European attitude is very regrettable in principle. “We are outsourcing our security to the USA, hoping that Americans will allow us to benefit from the results of their labour”, one diplomat deplored. “If the Commission had been bolder, we would have created our own programme for tracking down terrorist financing via Europol”, he said. (B.C./transl.jl)