EU-US restart talks on new SWIFT agreement

On Tuesday 11 May, the Council of the EU adopted its negotiation mandate for obtaining the conclusion of a long‐term agreement between the EU and the US on the transfer of banking data in the fight against terrorism (“Swift”). Consequently, on the 12 May the Commission and the US Treasury restarted talks to reach a deal on the contested financial data sharing issue in an effort to clinch an agreement before the end of June 2010, Commission sources said.

A Commission source told Euractiv.Com that “in the coming months little will be known about the substance of the  actual negotiations”

The agreement will be concluded only after the adoption by the member states of the EU at qualified majority voting and the approval of the European Parliament. The Parliament introduced two weeks ago theconditions on the content of a future agreement, including for bulk transfers of personal data to the USA to be avoided, if necessary by processing them within the EU, and for Europe’s citizens to be guaranteed the right of appeal to the US authorities.