By Francesca Ross and Kevin McCann - 5th February 2010
US secretary of state Hilary Clinton has called parliament president Jerzy Buzek to push for parliament's support for an EU-US data sharing agreement.
According to Buzek's office the "friendly" conversation on Thursday focused mostly on the Swift proposals, newly rejected at committee level but due to go before a plenary vote next week.
The provisos of the interim agreement in question mean that data regarding the movement of money into and out of Europe would be shared with the US, supposedly in the interests of tackling terrorism.
Civil liberties groups and campaigning MEPs say that parliament's position with regard to privacy and the rule of law, voiced in a resolution in September 2009, has been ignored by EU governments.
Clinton's call to Buzek came after the civil liberties committee called for the agreement's rejection at plenary level, with 29 votes in favour and 23 against.
Socialist leader Martin Schulz said he believed the committee's decision was likely to be mirrored at the full plenary vote, "Following the decision by my group today, I believe that parliament will reject the agreement.
"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 citizen’s fundamental rights."
For the Liberals, rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert added that the rejection at committee level, "has no legal consequence".
However, "It must be clear that by withholding our consent… the security of European citizens is not being compromised as other legal instruments remain available."
For the GUE/NGL group, Rui Tavares explained that the agreement, "contains several dangerous mistakes" including "the creation of an enormous database of European data on US soil… There is certainly a better way to do it".
Meanwhile, EPP leader Joseph Daul said despite his group's support for the agreement it had been "badly handled" by council, which had "failed to consult the parliament… and has not fully responded to its concerns".
Echoing his comments Greens/EFA home affairs expert Jan Philipp Albrecht added, "Parliament must not vote in favour of the agreement [without proper consultation], or it will completely betray its responsibilities as EU legislator and representative of the people."
The Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), based near Brussels, deals with trillions of dollars in global transactions daily between nearly 8000 financial institutions in 200-plus countries.
In July 2009, the company set up a storage centre for its European data in Switzerland, which meant that intra-European data was stored only in Europe. Until then the data had also been kept on a server in the US.
This new architecture required the negotiation of a fresh agreement between the commission and council on the one hand and the US on the other.
Have your say...
Please enter your comments below.