This article is also available in:
Deutsch: Bankdatentransfer an die USA kurz vor dem Abbruch
The Swedish EU presidency and the United States government have finalized a draft agreement on bank data transfer for anti-terrorism purposes in mid-November. While the negotiations over the so-called "SWIFT agreement" were held exclusively behind closed doors, the draft has been leaked to the press and was published by the German blog netzpolitik.org (run by German EDRi member Netzwerk Neue Medien) on 11 November and later also by Wikileaks. It stirred a heavy debate in German-speaking media and made front-page news. According to press reports, the US government sees no room for substantial changes in the draft.
While the US Treasury used to have accress to international bank data held by the Society for Worldwide Financial Transactions (SWIFT) at its server in Virginia, the new agreement was deemed necessary because SWIFT will re-structure its network and process inner-European transfers on its servers only in the Netherlands and Switzerland. The broad use of bank data searches for anti-terrorism purposes has been heavily criticized by data protection commissioners, the European Parliament and privacy advocacy groups. The draft agreement does not meet even the weak conditions set by the European Parliament in its resolution from September 2009. It still allows for transfers of data to third countries, does not offer judicial remedies for non-US-citizens, and does not require a judge approval before data transfer takes place. Members of Parliament were fully excluded from the negotiations and had a hard time even getting access to the relevant documents.
A number of governments have also been publicly opposing this agreement so far and threatening to postpone any conclusion until after 1st December. On this date, the Lisbon Treaty enters into force and gives full co-decision powers in the area of justice and home affairs to the European Parliament - which would effectively kill the current draft agreement. Among the strongest opponents have reportedly been the German and Austrian governments, but also France and the Netherlands are not convinced yet.
Privacy activists are encouraged to call the governments and EU embassies of these countries and tell them to stick to European principles of data protection and the rule of law and keep their opposition to the SWIFT agreement. Otherwise, the EU Council of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers may seal a last-minute deal at its meeting on 30 November.
Council of the European Union, Presidency: Draft Swift Agreement
(10.11.2009)
http://www.netzpolitik.org/wp-upload/SWIFT-Abkommen-2009-11-10.pdf
Spiegel Online EU-Minister sollen US-Schnüffelbefehl folgen (only in German,
11.11.2009)
http://www.spiegel.de/netzwelt/netzpolitik/0,1518,660597,00.html
Ralf Bendrath: SWIFT Agreement Not in Line with European Parliament 's
Demands (18.11.2009)
http://bendrath.blogspot.com/2009/11/swift-agreement-not-in-line-with....
EDRi-gram: MEPs ask for a new agreement on SWIFT bank data transfers to USA
(23.09.2009)
http://www.edri.org/edri-gram/number7.18/swift-european-parliament-res...
(Contribution by Ralf Bendrath, EDRi member Netzwerk Neue Medien)