EU parliament group backs bank data sharing deal with US to fight terrorism
A EUROPEAN Parliament committee said yesterday it supported a deal with the United States on sharing citizens’ bank data, a move which investigators say will help counter-terrorism investigations.
The vote in the parliament’s civil liberties committee followed weeks of negotiations between Washington and the European Union to improve privacy safeguards in the agreement after lawmakers vetoed an earlier version in February.
The EU has won concessions from US officials on how bank data will be transferred and used, allaying concerns over insufficient protection of Europeans’ private information.
“EU deputies voted 42-to-8 to approve the deal, signaling parliament was likely to ratify it in a vote later this week. This will give investigators from the US access to information on bank transfers collected by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT), which it says is an important tool to tracking suspects.
Any transfers of data held on SWIFT servers in Europe to the US will be monitored by EU officials.