Brussels, 16/09/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday 16 September, the president of the G29, which groups the European data protection authorities, Alex Türk of France, denounced on the Les Echos.fr website the talks currently being conducted by the European Union and the United States with a view to concluding an agreement allowing Americans to collect certain banking information from the Swift network as part of their fight against terrorism (see related article). Commenting on the attitude adopted by the European Commission, Türk said: “No-one dares oppose the United States if it concludes that data exchange has allowed counter-terrorism to be improved and that, on the other hand, such exchange of data is done according to standards set”. As he explains, the United States continues to have access to intra-European data. In his view, the United States is basing this request on the opinion given by Judge Jean-Louis Bruguière, who considers that everything is being done according to the rules. “However, the problem is that we have never had access to the judge's report as it filed away by the US authorities. We therefore requested a summary of the report from Judge Bruguière during June but we have still not received it”, he said. Türk takes the view that the control system currently in place is “not effective”. He goes on to point out: “We have no way to correctly judge how data is being used by the United States”. The president of the G29 finally went on to say that he feared the United States and the European Commission would sign an agreement very soon. He therefore wrote to the French authorities and to European Commissioner Jacques Barrot. “This is a sensitive matter which concerns the protection of personal data of all our citizens”, Türk concluded. (B.C./transl.jl)