Brussels, 27/07/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 27 July, the Foreign Affairs Ministers of the EU gave their green light to negotiations with Washington on an agreement allowing the United States to continue to have access to information from the inter-bank network SWIFT as part of the fight against terrorism (EUROPE 9947). "This by no means signifies that we are giving the United States a blank cheque, as some of our critics wish to imply", said Vice President Jacques Barrot on Monday (our translation throughout), clearly seeking to clear the European Commission from any blame. The co-presidents of the Greens at the European Parliament, Rebecca Harms and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, had effectively accused José Manuel Barroso of trying to circumnavigate the European Parliament in the negotiation of this agreement, which represents "a blatant violation of the fundamental rights of the citizens".
The negotiation mandate granted to the Swedish Presidency of the EU and to the Commission aims to conclude a "temporary agreement of a duration of a few months", Mr Barrot explained. "The United States will be able temporarily to continue to access such data as is deemed necessary, but only further to verification of the legality of their requests and under strict legal controls", he said. For the future, the Commission is strongly committed to negotiating a definitive agreement with the United States, but not until the Treaty of Lisbon has entered into force, so as to allow the Parliament to be fully involved in the negotiations. "We must be highly objective: there will be no unlimited access without verification; on the contrary, there are very clear rules and limitations", Jacques Barrot explained. (B.C./trans.fl)