A press release provides a misleading record from the European Parliament LIBE meeting.
Cutting off finance for terrorism: towards a European system
(Committees) – Justice and home affairs – 24-06-2010 – 18:17
Many Civil Liberties Committee MEPs hailed the progress achieved in the new agreement on banking data transfers to the USA for counter-terrorism purposes, four months after rejecting the previous agreement and pressing the European Commission to come up with a new deal. On Thursday, Parliament won firmer Council and Commission commitments to put in place an EU programme to combat finance for terrorism.
The article is wrong on multiple levels and does not provide a clear track record. I can only recommend to listen to the original LIBE audiovisual records for yourself, in particular to the clear word of Dutch MEP in’t Veld. The press release of the European Parliament is outrageous.
Update: Apparently a backroom deal was reached after the meeting. For instance MEP Alvaro twitters:
“Negotiations with span. presd. after LIBE com today achieved breakthru on #SWIFT agreement. EP gained signifikant changes in agr. & council.”
It does look procedurally wrong to me to get such off-the-record agreements and even if the achievement was that good the press release of the Parliament is still false. The public cannot scrutinize backroom deals and given the trickery of the Presidency such deals are not fixed unless there is an official record.
Sköne Oke 
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