Talks on sharing bank details with US prompt privacy concerns - by Jamie Smyth
The EU has agreed to begin talks with the US aimed at agreeing to share information on European citizens’ bank transactions for use in counter-terrorism investigations. EU foreign ministers gave a mandate to EU diplomats yesterday to negotiate a new interim deal with the US treasury to allow it to continue to access Swift, a Belgian firm owned by leading banks that facilitates international cross-border financial transactions. An existing EU-US deal signed in 2007 is due to run out later this year when Swift moves a key internet server at the center of its network from the US to the Netherlands.
“We must negotiate an agreement based on reciprocity rather than allowing the US to continue as they have up until now as if they were top dog,” EU justice commissioner Jacques Barrot told sceptical MEPs on the European Parliament’s civil liberties committee last week. He also warned them that without a deal a “security gap” would open up in the fight against terrorism. It’s hardly surprising that some MEPs are sceptical about allowing the US authorities to sift through EU citizens’ bank records. US security agencies secretly began monitoring Swift after the September 11th terrorist attacks without informing EU states or making details of the program public in the US.
Note EU-Digest: this is an extremely serious breach of European privacy laws. In the Netherlands International US Accounting Firms like Coopers and Lybrand and Grant Thornton now ask there clients for copies of their passports. There is no proof at all if this information is not also passed to US authorities.
