US bank details access bid blocked

12 Feb 2010

MEPs have blocked an American anti-terrorism bid to access Europeans' bank details.

Washington lobbied the European Parliament at the highest level to access the details as part of its efforts to uncover terrorism-related activities.

MEPSs rejected the American bid with a 378-196 vote in Strasbourg, claiming the intrusion into privacy breached privacy laws. They also maintained that the legitimate requirements of the fight against terrorism did not match the scale of monitoring of bank accounts.

The blocking has strained European Union relations with the US and the Commission has vowed to find a new Transatlantic formula for the deal

The rejection infuriated Washington and disappointed the European Commission, but Labour MEP Claude Moraes justified the rejection, insisting: "The proposed agreement would have handed over huge swathes of our constituents' private data to the US with scant protection. Attempts to uncover terrorist-related activity have got to be smarter than this."

The US lobbying included direct calls to some MEPs from Vice-President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

America started tracking the funding of terror groups after the 2001 attacks and, after lengthy talks with Brussels, agreed the EU-US Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP) agreement.