MEPs threaten to derail EU-US data-transfer deal

Centre-left and liberal groups lead the fight against an accord that would give US officials access to European bank transfer records.

The European Parliament is threatening to reject next week an EU-US deal to share data about bank transfers, which is considered by the Americans to be a vital part of their counter-terrorism defences.

The Parliament’s centre-left and liberal groups are leading the fight against an accord that, for nine months in the first instance, would allow US Treasury officials access to European records of bank transfers via SWIFT, an international bank transfer consortium.

MEPs and Parliament officials said that the two political groups, the second and third biggest in the Parliament, would team up with the Greens/European Free Alliance and other smaller political groups to deal an embarrassing set-back to EU-US security ties.

The agreement, which was negotiated with the US by the EU’s Council of Ministers and the European Commission, took effect provisionally on 1 February. But, because of the powers that the Parliament has acquired under the Lisbon treaty, the deal needs the approval of MEPs. If MEPs vote against the deal, it will be void.

The deal formalises secretive arrangements that the US Treasury has had with SWIFT since 2001, allowing US investigators access to banking data, while talks continue on a permanent EU-US deal.

The Parliament’s civil liberties committee is today (4 February) expected to back a report drafted by Dutch Liberal MEP Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert that says the EU should ditch the deal and renegotiate a new accord with better privacy and data protection guarantees, officials said.

As of yesterday, the report was scheduled for debate by the full Parliament next week.

The centre-right European People’s Party was pushing to postpone a vote.

Sophia in ’t Veld, a Dutch Liberal, said MEPs across party lines were angry with the way they had been pushed and cajoled to pass the accord, without being given sufficient time to study the pact.

“All groups in the Parliament are very dissatisfied both with the substance…and deeply unhappy with the procedures in the Council,” she said.

In ’t Veld said that the civil liberties committee was given details of the accord only on 25 January. “This is an affront, unacceptable,” she said.

Spain’s Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, whose country currently holds the rotating presidency of the Council of Ministers, acknowledged in a letter sent last week to Parliament President Jerzy Buzek, that there had been a delay in getting the accord to lawmakers because the text had to be translated into 21 other official EU languages.

But Martin Schulz, leader of the centre-left Socialists and Democrats group, said his MEPs would join the liberals in blocking the accord.

“We want a new and better deal with proper safeguards for people’s privacy. The fight against terrorism is a priority, but the EU cannot be allowed to ride roughshod over its citizens’ fundamental rights,” he said.

US government officials were this week making last-ditch appeals to MEPs not to reject the pact.

Stuart Levey, the US Treasury under-secretary for terrorism and financial intelligence, warned that a Parliamentary veto of the pact would “handicap” anti-terror investigators, leaving the door open to terrorist groups. “Losing the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program now would be a deeply regrettable and potentially tragic mistake,” he added.

Michele Cercone, the Commission’s justice and home affairs spokesman, said: “The position of the Commission is that an interim agreement is needed in order to avoid a security gap.”

Both EU and US officials argue that allowing US officials access to banking data from SWIFT has led to leads, arrests and convictions against suspect terrorists. They also claim that EU citizen data and privacy rights are properly respected under the new accord.