By Martin Banks - 6th July 2010
We need to close the counter-terrorism data gap between Europe and America
Tim Kirkhope
Parliament's civil liberties committee has given the green light to a final deal between the EU and US on sharing information about bank transfers.
The terrorist finance tracking programme, otherwise known as the Swift agreement, was unanimously approved at a meeting on Monday in Strasbourg.
It paves the way for MEPs to endorse the agreement in a plenary vote on Thursday.
The vote ends a long process of recrimination amongst the EU institutions.
Negotiations were almost abandoned after parliament rejected the temporary Swift agreement in February. Since then, the US claimed there was a significant data gap in the fight against transatlantic terror.
Monday's vote was greeted by Tim Kirkhope, European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group spokesman on civil liberties as a "significant" improvement on earlier proposals.
"Both the EU and the US urgently need this agreement which will play a significant role in combating terrorist financing.
"It was extremely unfortunate that a crucial counter-terrorism agreement with the US initially became a political football between the EU institutions and a test case for the parliament's new powers under the Lisbon treaty.
"The Americans have nevertheless shown a huge amount of good faith which has not always been reciprocated by all MEPs.
"But this proposal has been significantly improved from the one that MEPs rejected in February. The US has pulled out all the stops to take onboard MEPs' concerns and we owe it to them to do our best to approve the agreement without further delay.
"We need to close the counter-terrorism data gap between Europe and America.
"The USA and the EU need to stand together in the fight against terrorism and this vote sends all the right signals in that regard."
Further comment came from EPP deputy leader Manfred Weber, who said, "We firmly support this new agreement following the changes introduced in order to guarantee higher standards of data protection, including a thorough European oversight of data extraction on US soil.
"Negotiations were reopened to take parliament's final demands into account, such as the request for a binding twin-track approach to establish a tracking programme at the earliest."
He added, "After difficult negotiations over the past months between parliament and the commission the EPP group is satisfied with the detailed specification of the scope.
"It will be limited to the conduct pertaining to terrorism or terrorist financing, the strengthening of the right to appeal for EU citizens of both judicial and administrative decisions and greater transparency."
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