Parliament voted on Thursday 11 February not to give its consent to the interim agreement between the EU and the USA on bank data transfers via the SWIFT network. This vote prevented the agreement coming into force. Now work will focus on the negotiation of a definitive SWIFT agreement that meets the European Parliament's demands regarding data protection.
The resolution rejecting the agreement was passed by 378 votes to 196, with 31 abstentions. It also calls on the Commission and Council to start work on a long-term agreement with the USA on this matter. MEPs restated their position that any new accord must meet the criteria of the Lisbon Treaty, and in particular comply with the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
A proposal by the EPP and ECR groups to postpone the vote was rejected by 305 votes to 290, with 14 abstentions.
Parliament has been debating the SWIFT issue since 2006, and at various stages in its progress, MEPs have put pressure on the Council of Ministers for more parliamentary control and increased personal data protection.
What is SWIFT?
SWIFT is a financial messaging company based in Belgium which operates a network through which passes information (account holders and numbers, the origin and destination of transfers, etc.) of some 8000 institutions (chiefly banks) in over 200 countries. It is said to have 80% of the market in electronic financial transfers. A large amount of information on the daily lives of EU citizens therefore transits through it.
A cog in the Terrorism Finance Tracking Program
The SWIFT network has been used for several years by the US Treasury Department under its Terrorism Finance Tracking Program (TFTP), to identify, locate and track down people suspected of terrorism as well as their financial backers, in the wake of the attacks of 11 September 2001. SWIFT has provided the Treasury with targeted data to trace the movements of terrorism-related funds.
This cooperation initially took place in great secrecy but was revealed by the press in June 2006. The European Parliament then demanded that a framework be established to ensure appropriate data protection and prevent the data being used for purposes other than counter-terrorism. As a result, a transatlantic dialogue was set up and the EU obtained certain safeguards. In return the services of the EU Member States could benefit from information processed by the USA under the TFTP.
The Commission then mandated former counter-terrorism judge Jean-Louis Bruguière to produce a report in February 2009, which concluded that the United States had given guarantees on the protection of personal data. The European Parliament, working at that time under the Nice Treaty, had no binding power over the signing of international agreements on justice and home affairs matters. Judge Bruguière published a second report in early February of this year.
New structure, new agreement
In July 2009, the press revealed that a new agreement was to be negotiated following changes in the structure of SWIFT. The company had 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 United States. This new architecture required the negotiation of a fresh agreement between the Commission and Council on the one hand and the United States on the other.