Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-07-05-Speech-3-227"
| Predicate | Value (sorted: default) |
|---|---|
| rdf:type | |
| dcterms:Date | |
| dcterms:Is Part Of | |
| dcterms:Language | |
| lpv:document identification number |
"en.20060705.18.3-227"2
|
| lpv:hasSubsequent | |
| lpv:speaker | |
| lpv:spoken text |
".
Mr President, on this very sensitive issue, at the moment the Commission has only partial information, which we have already requested to be supplemented as soon as possible, regarding the exact facts as to how the American authorities obtained access to data on financial transactions held by SWIFT. At present, it seems that there was a transfer of financial information between private companies from the EU to the United States.
I understand that several authorities in Europe, including the European Central Bank, were informed. I quote from a statement from the American Treasury issued on 23 June: ‘SWIFT is overseen by a committee drawn from major central banks, including the United States Federal Reserve, the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Bank of Japan and the lead overseer, the National Bank of Belgium. The overseers have been informed about SWIFT’s participation with the Treasury and the safeguards and assurances put in place’. I repeat that I was quoting there from a statement of the American Treasury.
I can assure you that this information, of which I am now aware, was not passed on to the Commission previously, because the transfer of such financial information falls within the scope of the Data Protection Directive 95/46/EC. National authorities are primarily responsible for the proper application of the data protection rules. I trust that European Member States will take all the necessary action to ensure that their national data protection legislation is properly applied and strictly enforced. I observe that the Belgian Prime Minister has already asked the Justice Ministry to investigate and that the Belgian Data Protection Supervisory Commission is being equally active in assessing the circumstances under which this particular transfer has taken place.
In any case, the Commission will follow the developments very closely and, if necessary, we will make full use of our powers under the Treaty. I stress that, at this stage, I do not know whether this would be appropriate, as we have first to learn from the Belgian authorities what exactly happened, how and why.
As my colleague, Mr McCreevy, stated on Monday before this Parliament, the regulation on information on the payer accompanying transfers of funds, on which you will vote tomorrow, contains the appropriate safeguards on data protection and access by competent authorities to such data. I recalled that the European Data Protection Supervisor provided a positive assessment and did not detect any data protection concerns. I think, therefore, that the SWIFT affair should not delay the regulation on information on the payer accompanying the transfer of funds, the adoption of which is essential to detecting terrorist financing.
Let me finish by stressing once again my commitment to the fight against terrorism and to the identification of methods used to finance it, acting, of course, within the full rule of law and in accordance with our fundamental rights."@en1
|
| lpv:unclassifiedMetadata |
Named graphs describing this resource:
The resource appears as object in 2 triples