NEWS

U.S. and EU Restart Negotiations on Sharing Bank Data to Fight Terrorism

By Sherry Harowitz
03/24/2010 -
The European Union is entering a new round of negotiations with the United States regarding the sharing of bank data as a part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, according to a press release from the EU Directorate General Communication. " The Commission today adopted a draft mandate for negotiating bank data transfers with the United States government under the Terrorist Financing Tracking Program (TFTP)," states the release. It also notes that the Commission wants to complete an agreement this summer.
 
"Under the proposal of the Commission, the draft mandate includes significant further data protection guarantees such as a strict counter-terrorism purpose limitation, an absolute prohibition on transfers of bulk data to third countries (only leads can be transferred)," states the release. Further, it notes, " In line with EU law, the mandate proposes a general maximum data retention period of 5 years."

 

As background, the release notes, "At the EU Justice and Home Affairs Council of February 25, 2010, there was general agreement among Member States that there is a pressing need to put in place a new EU-US TFTP Agreement to maintain this valuable counter-terrorism program, after the refusal of the European Parliament to consent to the TFTP Interim Agreement, on February 11."
 

 

 







 

 

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