Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-04-21-Speech-3-128"
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"en.20100421.5.3-128"2
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"Madam President, I think this has indeed been a very constructive debate. We have listened carefully and are taking due notice of everything that has been said. The Council answered quite a lot of the questions that were raised, and I will just add a few things because it is important that we get as much clarity as possible.
If we postpone the decision in the Council, we will lose two important weeks of negotiations. I said earlier that the Americans are willing. They are constructive and they want to embark on this, but it will not be easy. It will be a difficult negotiation and we need the time. We want to get this done as soon as possible but also as well as possible. If we want the European Parliament to be able to vote on it before the summer recess, we must take a decision so that we can start the negotiations as soon as possible. So please be understanding about this. I do want to reassure you that both the Presidency and the Commission have listened extremely carefully to your views and, as the Presidency said, we will take account of the debate here and communicate it to the Ministers on Friday.
There will be an EU review team. They will have the right to review random samples to ensure that the data has been taken in a way that is respected according to the agreement. There must be a reasonable belief that the target of the search is a terrorist or someone financing terrorism. We also must remember that each and every search of TFTP data is verified by a SWIFT scrutineer and by an independent judicial authority before it is given out. The EU review team will also have access to this information.
The agreement will ensure that EU citizens have access to non-discriminatory administrative and judicial rights. Exactly how this will be specified is, of course, part of the negotiations, so I cannot be more specific on this. But it is – as the Council also said – a very important part of the negotiation. We will have to find a solution to this, and as regards rectification and access.
Data will not be transferred to third countries – only relevant leads analysis but not mass data – and it will only be for terrorism purposes. The whole deal is only for terrorism purposes. The agreement will also ensure that EU nationals, via their data protection authorities, have the right to know that the rights of the data subject have been duly respected. The use requests for data are already targeted when it comes to bulk data. There has to be a suspected terrorist that can only be searched. So only a fraction of SWIFT data will be transferred and only a very small proportion of that will be accessed. The rest will remain anonymous.
We will seek to reduce and explore the possibility of reducing and fine-tuning the definition in order to have the volume still further reduced, but there are already legally binding rules that would prevent any access to that data unless there is reasonable suspicion. The EU review team will verify a representative sample – as I said – and if there are any breaches of the agreement, it can be immediately interrupted by the European Union.
So I think that we can act swiftly and that we can have a good agreement. There is the security gap issue that we have to take into consideration but, of course, there are also many questions that have to be answered concerning data protection and the other issues that you have raised. The Americans have shown a very open attitude so far. They are ready to work with us as quickly as possible but also to be creative and to find answers to our questions. I know that a team from the European Parliament will travel next week and you will be able to put questions and hopefully have more answers then.
The other track in parallel to this is, of course, whether we should have another solution at European level, whether we should have an EU TFTP or create some new authority. That is a very important discussion. It needs to be explored in depth within Europe. Of course, that will not be part of the negotiation. We must make sure that, should this happen, the Americans will help and there will be reciprocity, but we must figure that out. The Commission is willing to participate, to be innovative and to put forward proposals, but that is for the Member States to decide. I know that the European Parliament is very active, and I am looking forward to having these discussions with you. So this is a parallel discussion.
Also in parallel, there is the work done by my colleague, Vice-President Viviane Reding, who is already starting to draft a mandate for a long-term data protection agreement for all the agreements that we have with the United States. Of course, this is also something that has to be put into the picture.
Finally, the volcano in Iceland is, of course, something that has created a lot of travel problems for many people all around the world and it makes it impossible for you to vote. I very much deplore that, but you can be sure that – the Presidency is here, I am here, our services are here – we have taken due account of the debate. We have seen the draft resolution and that is signed by four political groups. We will communicate that to the Ministers."@en1
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