EU says no to the US on sharing bank data

dlofnep

MEP's have voted against a resolution for sharing bank transfer data with the US. It was rejected by a vote of 378-196, with 31 abstaining. It was rejected on the premise of protecting EU citizen's privacy rights.

Good move by the EU imo. Financial transactions of EU citizens should be private.

Scofflaw

dlofnep wrote: »

MEP's have voted against a resolution for sharing bank transfer data with the US. It was rejected by a vote of 378-196, with 31 abstaining. It was rejected on the premise of protecting EU citizen's privacy rights.

Good move by the EU imo. Financial transactions of EU citizens should be private.

Very much a case of the Parliament doing its job, which is to hold back the governments on behalf of the citizens.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Scofflaw

Naturally enough, the British aren't happy:

Britain accused the European Parliament of putting "the safety and security" of Britons at risk after MEPs blocked a key trans-Atlantic antiterrorist deal.

British officials accused the parliament of jeopardising public safety across the European Union by rejecting the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme, which allows US security agencies to intercept banking information on money transfers made by suspected terrorists.

"This is a serious setback in the fight against terrorism as the agreement has supplied vital leads against those terrorists responsible for planning or committing attacks against EU citizens," said a government spokesman.

Fall out from the vote is expected to badly damage EU-US relations after the Christmas Day Detroit bomb plot led a heightened international terrorist alert.

Jerzy Buzek, the Parliament's President, said that MEPs had rejected the sharing of financial transfer information held on European banking servers because of privacy concerns and anger over secret negotiations between EU governments and Washington.

cordially,
Scofflaw

Overheal

Whats to stop the EU from monitoring its own transactions and every once in a blue moon saying 'Hey, take a look at this'.

Or am I reading this wrong and this is not a bill to give the US Agencies unfiltered access but, Any access to financial data?

dlofnep

From what I can understand, the US can still approach an individual country for co-operation - but they wanted complete unity across the board, with policy transcending across all member states of the EU.

ei.sdraob

Scofflaw wrote: »

Very much a case of the Parliament doing its job, which is to hold back the governments on behalf of the citizens.

Good thing we gave them more powers under Lisbon so

Scofflaw wrote: »

Naturally enough, the British aren't happy:

why dont they just leave the EU already and become the 51st state, them already being Amerca's puppet in Iraq and Afghanistan quaqmires
all that moaning (in the newspapers) is rather tiresome

Overheal

dlofnep wrote: »

From what I can understand, the US can still approach an individual country for co-operation - but they wanted complete unity across the board, with policy transcending across all member states of the EU.

So at present the member countries keep their bank records separate from one another?

dlofnep

Overheal wrote: »

So at present the member countries keep their bank records separate from one another?

I'm not entirely sure. As I understand it, if the US wanted to view a transaction of let's say Johnny Terrorist in France - they could ask France directly - but what they want is to streamline the process, so that it's permitted at EU level, and therefore permitted by all member states.

At least that's my understanding of it. I could be way off!

ei.sdraob

dlofnep wrote: »

I'm not entirely sure. As I understand it, if the US wanted to view a transaction of let's say Johnny Terrorist in France - they could ask France directly - but what they want is to streamline the process, so that it's permitted at EU level, and therefore permitted by all member states.

At least that's my understanding of it. I could be way off!

you are way off

to summarize

this issue is all about SWIFT who are in charge of most of international transactions (not domestic bank records, but transactions), think of them as something akin to Western Union, if you ever had to send money abroad you probably filled out a SWIFT form

basically they (them being a private company) had their databases in US, but when asked for access to records they SWIFTly moved their servers into Europe, so the US asked the EU to "look into it" and now we have the result

this is not about bank records but international transaction records, im sure if they wanted your bank record from AIB lets say they (the US) could ask their pals here in our govt or whatever

dlofnep

Ah ok, gotcha. So it only pertains to swift records?

ei.sdraob

dlofnep wrote: »

Ah ok, gotcha. So it only pertains to swift records?

yep more here > http://yro.slashdot.org/story/10/02/06/1836221/EU-Committee-Says-No-To-Bank-Data-Sharing


im sure this below didnt help the US either

dw-world.de @ 05-02-2010 wrote:

The US is threatening to stop working with Europe in the fight against terrorism after an EU parliamentary group rejected a proposed data-sharing agreement. A final EU vote is scheduled for next week.

this is also interesting
> http://yro.slashdot.org/story/06/06/24/045200/US-Secretly-Tapping-Bank-Databases

The Washington Post and New York Times are reporting on a Bush administration initiative that has tapped into a vast global database of confidential financial transactions for nearly five years...

HalloweenJack

Bravo EU.

So much for all the doomsayers saying Lisbon would let the EU politicos shaft us and it shows we will not be the US' bitch.

thebman

Good on 'em I say.

British reaction was hilarious when I read it.