US Must Respect European Data Laws

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Wed 4th Oct 2006

Today the European Parliament's held a hearing on the interception of bank transfer data from the SWIFT system by the US secret services. The data which was stored in the US was handed over by SWIFT in response to a subpoena.

Commenting, Sharon Bowles MEP, Liberal Democrat Economic Affairs Spokesperson for the Liberal Democrats, said:

"The main culprit here is the US for once again choosing to use heavyweight legal tactics against European companies rather than having an honest dialogue with its allies.

"Once the data was in the US, SWIFT had no option but to comply with US law. The questions that remain are should EU legislation have prevented the data from being sent in the first place and did giving it to the US authorities constitute a risk that required notification to data protection supervisors in Belgium and other EU countries.

"Revelations of the US hand over have surprised everyone, so we are left with the situation that either safeguards in the European legislation dealing with data transfer to outside the EU failed to meet their intention, or were broken. Either way it is a very grey area that should be resolved rapidly by dialogue between the EU and US.

Baroness Sarah Ludford MEP, Liberal Democrat Justice and Home Affairs Spokesperson, said:

"While I recognise that a company caught between two legal systems has a headache, it is clear in the case of SWIFT that if the data arose in Europe and concerned European citizens, then it was covered by EU data protection law.

"The fact that no competent European authorities were informed to ensure that US demands did not undermine compliance with EU law was a shocking betrayal of the privacy expectations of the affected Europeans."

ENDS

Notes to Editors

SWIFT mirrors its bank transfer data to storage in the US as part of its system stability and security. At the hearing Sharon Bowles asked the Commission if it had been discussed whether there was an adequate level of protection for data in the US, given the well known long arm of US law even before the Patriot Act. Under Article 25 of the 1995 Directive data can only be sent to countries that have an adequate level of protection.