EU parliament votes to approve new bank data transfer deal

By Martin Banks - 8th July 2010

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MEPs have endorsed a new deal which will allow US anti-terror investigators to access Europeans' bank data.

The agreement was passed by 484 in favour with 109 against in a vote in Strasbourg on Thursday.

It paves the way for the so-called Swift deal to come into force in August, initially for a period of five years.

MEPs were quick to respond, with parliament's president Jerzy Buzek saying,"The final agreement meets parliament's key concerns on several fronts."

"Important institutional lessons have also been learned from this experience."

German MEP Alexander Alvaro, who drafted parliament's position and led negotiations with the other institutions, said, "Parliament has stood up for citizens' rights to privacy by insisting that the current transfer of bulk data via Swift will be replaced by a properly controlled European data transfer system."

EPP group deputy leader Manfred Weber said the deal would "prevent and fight terrorism in Europe and find transactions by terrorist groups all around the world."

UK Tory MEP Tim Kirkhope agreed, saying the deal "sends the right signals about our resolve to fight terrorism."

But support for the deal was not universal with Greens/EFA home affairs expert Jan Philipp Albrecht saying, "The adoption of the new Swift agreement by the majority of the parliament is a blow for the negotiations on a binding protection of fundamental rights in international security cooperation.

"There were some improvements to the first draft, but there is still fundamental criticism of the massive data transfers without initial suspicion and the too long data retention periods.

"The grand coalition of Conservatives, Social Democrats and Liberals has therefore accepted lower standards than the existing principles of the rule of law and is risking a regulation that is in breach of EU law."

He added, "We Greens have therefore opposed the new agreement."

GUE/NGL MEP Rui Tavares branded the deal "a violation of the fundamental rights of innocent Europeans."

Tavares said that the content of the agreement essentially remained the same since MEPs rejected it five months ago and vowed to challenge the deal in the European Court of Justice.