By Stephen C. Webster
A U.S. push to legally access data generated by Europe's electronic
banking activity has been rebuffed by EU lawmakers in a vote of
parliament, according to published reports.
Though U.S. snoops
have been allowed to access data through the Society for Worldwide
Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift) since the beginning of
February on the basis of a provisional security agreement, "Liberal,
Socialist and Green euro-MPs" were successful in vetoing the deal, Euronews reported.
Citing privacy concerns, members of parliament voted 378 to 196 in favor of the veto, with 31 members abstaining.
"U.S. diplomats in Brussels called the move 'a setback for U.S.-EU counter-terror cooperation,'" Dow Jones Newswires noted.
Resistance
to the arrangement was led by Dutch lawmaker Jeanine
Hennis-Plasschaert, Dow added. "We all know what the [U.S.] Congress
would say" if the Obama administration proposed sending Americans' bank
data overseas, he reportedly said.
Members insisted that should an arrangement for U.S. access to Swift
data be put in place, U.S. authorities must adhere to EU standards of
privacy, members declared on the parliament's Web site.
"Without
the deal, the United States must now rely on individual agreements with
EU member nations in order to access information, such as European bank
transfers," Voice of America news added.
The
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA), however, have been examining Swift
data since 2001, even without EU permission. When this fact was
revealed in 2006, MPs declared it illegal and threatened sanctions against the U.S.
Swift claimed the data was legally handed over through its U.S. branch after being served with numerous subpoenas and that information revealed was "limited, targeted, protected, audited and overseen."
"Swift handles millions of transactions daily between banks and other financial institutions worldwide," the BBC noted. "It holds the data of some 8,000 banks and operates in 200 countries."
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