Commissioner Malmström defensive intervention in the European Parliament. She claims the agreement includes “an absolute prohibition on data mining – searches of the database can only be undertaken where it is possible to show a reason to believe that the subject of the search is engaged in terrorism.” The Spanish presidency claimed that the SWIFT interim agreement was not about bulk data transfer. This contradicts the information from SWIFT that it was technically impossible for them to answer individual queries. Here is the text of the agreement.
Video recordings from today’s debate are available from the European Parliament website.
It would really be wise for the MEPs to decide based on the agreement and not on what the Council Presidency might think.
Bulk data transfer is expressly permitted in the agreement. Everyone can check it within 10 minutes.
It is probably even confirmed by another part of the agreement: the EU can ask the US to do “searches” then get back data of terror suspects. And I assume they US would already have all the data and not ask back the data for exact same search to the EU authorities.
[…] SWIFT Parliament debate with Malmström Commissioner Malmström defensive intervention in the European Parliament. She claims the agreement includes “an absolute prohibition on data mining – searches of the database can only be undertaken where it is possible to show a reason to believe that the subject of the search is engaged in terrorism.” […]