THE US has intensified its campaign for a new scheme to give American anti-terror agents the right to examine European bank data, with vice-president Joe Biden telling MEPs such access was crucial to avert future attacks.
Almost three months after MEPs voted down a previous deal to give data on bank transfers to US intelligence agencies on privacy grounds, Mr Biden said in a speech to the European Parliament that the Obama administration wanted to conclude a new agreement as quickly as possible.
“The longer we are without an agreement on the terrorist-finance tracking programme, the greater the risk of a terrorist attack that could have been prevented,” he said yesterday.
The failed attempt to car-bomb Times Square in New York last weekend showed that the West could not let its guard down, he added.
The arrangements that MEPs blocked in February empowered the US to track the flow of funds through the banking system by accessing information collected by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (Swift), which registers international money transfers.
Efforts are under way to reach a new deal between the US and the EU, but it would have to pass muster with the parliament to come into force. MEPs’ rejection of the original pact was emblematic or their rising power under the newly-enacted Lisbon Treaty, which increases parliamentary oversight of all international agreements that the EU seeks to make.
Mr Biden’s speech to the parliament was among several engagements in Brussels yesterday, including talks with European Commission chief José Manuel Barroso and European Council president Herman Van Rompuy.
He travels today to Madrid and tomorrow meets Spanish prime minister José Luis Zapatero, whose government currently hold the EU’s rotating presidency.
His effort to persuade MEPs to back the initiative follows intensive lobbying of senior European officials by US secretary of state Hillary Clinton in the days before the parliament voted down the agreement.
Mr Biden told MEPs that he respected their views on the inalienable right to privacy, saying Americans shared their concerns. “No less than privacy, physical safety is also an inalienable right.”
He did not blame MEPs for questioning the scheme but said America’s commitment to privacy was as profound as theirs. “I am absolutely convinced that we can succeed to both use the tool and guarantee privacy. It is important that we do it and it is important that we do so as quickly as possible.”