Anger in the EU Parliament on Swift - New Technology

afternoon voting EU Parliament on the issue of “SWIFT agreement” that gives the United States access to information about European banking transactions, shall be frozen. The sentences are markedly different.

According to the so-called SWIFT agreement, the EU will help the U.S. to track terrorists and their funding. The agreement is from 2010 and is actually called Terrorist Financing Tracking Program, TFTP.

Through the agreement the U.S. would be able to request information about transactions from Swift – a company that handles a very large number of international banking transactions – but only selectively and only in to combat terrorism.

German magazine Der Spiegel revealed, however, in September the U.S. SIGINT Agency NSA gained access to millions of Europeans’ banking transactions through monitoring of the SWIFT system.

revelations based on information from whistle-blower Edward Snowden and has now led many MPs to highlight the U.S. and freeze SWIFT agreement.

While advocating the conservative wing and the Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström a continuation of U.S. cooperation.

According to Cecilia Malmström, the U.S. government in talks with her made assurances that the United States had no wide access to financial information via SWIFT Agreement entered into force. The talks should not have yielded any evidence of violations, she says.

MEPs vote could be a temperature gauge on how much anger against the NSA’s mass surveillance is. The final decision on the issue of cooperation to be frozen should be taken by member states ministers in the European Council. To cancel the contract required a qualified majority.

LIVE: Watch the debate in the European Parliament here.