EU capitulating on "anti-terror" finance information deal with US

The European parliament was poised Thursday to approve a bank data sharing scheme that the United States says is crucial to fight terrorism after securing safeguards to protect the privacy of Europeans.

The United States will again have access to the banking information from August 1 after European MPs, as expected, approve a new deal that was signed by Brussels and Washington last week. European lawmakers' main concern was that personal information, including data from electronic bank payments, would be used by US authorities, held for too long and handed on to other governments (or to the private sector).
Under the new deal, Europol, the European police organisation, will check the validity of US requests.

The United States also agreed to allow the presence of an EU official in Washington who will be able to monitor the use of banking data of EU citizens by US authorities. EU citizens will also be able to contest the use of their data before US courts.
But the head of Europe's privacy watchdog, the European Data Protection Supervisory, said he still had reservations. The main problem is that Washington receives large chunks of data because it is technologically impossible to select bits of information, Hustinx said.
"We are presently accepting an arrangement which allows for much more information than is necessary because we simply cannot focus better," he said.

The EU wants to set up its own Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme, which would enable it to sift through data on its own and select what to send to Washington. Cecilia Malmstroem, the EU commissioner for home affairs, said she would make proposals by early 2011. Officials said a European programme could be operational in three to five years.

Note EU-Digest:  This agreement is a capitulation by the EU to US demands. The US argument of increased security risks if this agreement is not signed is a complete farce. Security experts claim the whole US security system is riddled with problems. These problems are far more dangerous than the lack of having EU citizen's Privacy data. There also is no reciprocity clause in this new proposed agreement, whereby the EU could get similar data about US citizens. These kinds of agreements which directly affect EU citizens in reality require either a referendum in the EU or approval by each EU members parliament. The EU parliament should reject it regardless of what they have been told by Mr. Joe Bidden. This proposed agreement which is being sneaked into the EU parliament during its summer recess is not only a capitulation to US demands, but also a flagrant infringement on EU sovereign citizens privacy rights. It should be rejected.

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