ELDR Focus Year

Today the European Parliament voted 378-196 to reject the SWIFT bank data sharing deal with the United States. Members of European Parliament resisted pressure from the US to continue a nine-month interim agreement allowing the United States of America access to financial transaction data from SWIFT, an international banking transfer system.

Aloys Rigaut, President of the European Liberal Youth (LYMEC) reacted to the news of the vote: “The European Parliament for the first time exercised its new powers under the Treaty of Lisbon, rejecting this scandalous agreement which would have given away the privacy of the very citizens they represent. We applaud the Parliamentarians who across party line opposed this dubious proposal. We are especially proud of the role liberals played in shaping this broad majority, not least based on the critical report of liberal rapporteur Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert.”

LYMEC Vice President Alexander Plahr added: “This is a great development! For the next months, European banking data will be secure again. However, we must remain vigilant, since a permanent agreement will be proposed by the Commission later this year. It is highly doubtful that such a deal is necessary, since there already today is excellent judicial cooperation between the EU and the US. Any future agreements in the area of law enforcement must therefore continue to be based on the presumption of innocence, reciprocity, strict data protection and recourse to the courts.”

Note: LYMEC recently met with the ALDE group, discussing the SWIFT issue as well as the broader privacy campaign run by LYMEC