Brussels: The EU governments authorised
the European Commission on Friday to negotiate a new agreement
with the United States on sharing and tracking information
about bank transfers in terrorism investigations.
EU Interior Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom
said she hopes to begin talks with the US soon and to have a
new accord before the end of June.
She said she will push for "significant data
protection guarantees" and the right to terminate the accord
if US. Officials violate any of its data protection standards.
At a meeting, the EU interior affairs ministers gave
her a mandate to insist that US requests for access to data be
approved by a judge in an EU nation, that EU nationals to have
the same redress as US citizens against data abuse, and to
ensure data is only for terrorism probes.
In February, the European Parliament rejected a
deal it deemed too weak on privacy protection and cut off US
access to information on bank transfers through SWIFT, an
international banking cooperative based in Belgium.
Earlier this month, after discussing
counter-terrorism issues with EU officials in Spain, US
Attorney General Eric Holder said obstacles continued to block
a new trans-Atlantic anti-terror data sharing accord.
The original one stemmed from a secret program
launched after the September 11, 2001, attacks that gave US
authorities access to European financial data, but was found
to have skirted Europe`s strict privacy rules.
PTI
