The European Union and the United States are holding informal talks over data privacy rules, EU and US officials said.
A committee of EU national data privacy supervisors meeting today and tomorrow is set to rule that international banking network Swift broke EU privacy rules in giving the United States access to records of millions of private transactions, Swift chief executive Leonard Schrank said last week.
"The United States are in contact with our experts, they want to establish a modus vivendi, see on which terms we can agree over data protection and (the) fight against terrorism," a European Commission official said today.
Concerns over Swift data-tapping added to other cases of divergent transatlantic views over data privacy rules in the fight against terrorism.
The EU and the United States agreed a deal last month on the handing-over of air passenger data. Concerned by Swift and air data-sharing, EU lawmakers called on the EU and the United States to negotiate a wide-ranging agreement on security and data privacy.
EU and US senior officials held talks during a visit of the EU's Justice and Security Commissioner Franco Frattini to Washington on November 6th and will continue at senior level, another commission official said.
Swift has been at the centre of controversy since US media revealed it had allowed the Treasury Department to tap into its records to search for evidence of terrorism-related activities without informing European authorities.
A US official repeated today the US view that European data protection law is not applicable to cover measures taken by the US for its national security.