Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2007-01-31-Speech-3-145"
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"en.20070131.20.3-145"2
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".
Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, I should firstly like to thank you most sincerely for the many comments, ideas and of course – whether one likes them or not – the critical remarks. In a debate, they serve to indicate whether or not one is on the right track and whether it is possible to prevent some state of affairs that was not perhaps right in the past from arising again.
Not only legal protection and legal certainty but also the issue of how we are to combat specific forms of international terrorism are, it is true, unanimously deemed to be important, but we must not in any circumstances play these off against each other. Where the two areas of PNR and SWIFT are concerned, we face different situations.
In the statement by the Presidency, I again made a point of clearly emphasising cooperation and interchange with the Commission, on the basis of which we wish together to arrive at a legally certain regulation. This raises many issues to which you have also referred today, including those of how extensive the information is, what access there is to it and what controls need to be exercised by the other party. Similar issues arise too where the subject of SWIFT is concerned, and in this connection I am again happy to take up Mr Radwan’s idea. Irrespective of whether or not it is at present on the agendas of the G7 or G8 or comes within the area of relations between the European Union and the United States, it is important to address this issue.
There would certainly be no benefit in just moving constantly from one aspect to the next, as what is at issue here is essentially the same. We are concerned with data protection, with legal certainty and, furthermore, with the form to be taken by the transatlantic partnership, in connection with which we are of the view that partnership is not a one-way street. It is a question of working with, rather than against, each other.
We need the information concerned, and relations between the European Union and the United States should be such that, in the forthcoming meetings between the two countries, it should be possible to address the issues very clearly, above all with a view to confronting the danger that some of you have described. I can do no more than say how absolutely right it is to address these issues openly. When are we to be confronted with the next case in which data is perhaps unsafely accessed? That is a point that we should like to take up. Without now going into technical details, I also say that with, specifically, SWIFT in mind. Where is the data? Is it here, and would we have the opportunity to put it in order and limit its extent without its being passed on? Or is the data possibly already available in the USA where, because of the nature of data protection there, it is very easy to access? The implication in that case, however, is that we have no influence at all.
The question is, however, that of what influence the European Union has on data that is transferred and that is, as it were, ready to be called up elsewhere? Specifically where SWIFT is concerned, this is certainly a complicated procedure. All this should, however, give us the opportunity for discussing these matters in depth and for arguing how important it is for us in the European Union to stand for certain values and also to act in defence of those values. It should also give us the opportunity for arguing how essential it is to maintain the existing balance. That does not mean that we are always in agreement about the fight against international terrorism. It is just that all these matters have to be balanced out.
Commissioner Frattini did in fact make this very clear in giving precedence not only to people’s safety but also to legal protection and to the very high level of data protection such as we do in fact have in the European Union. I can only assure you that these many facets that you have discussed are also to be included for discussion in the forthcoming negotiations, and in relation not only to PNR but also, of course, to SWIFT."@en1
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