[e-privacy] EDRi-Gram: EU interim technical supervisor for EU-US Swift Agreement

[Andrea Glorioso]

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5. EU interim technical supervisor for EU-US Swift Agreement
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As on 1 August 2010 the so-called Swift agreement allowing EU citizens'
bank data to be transferred to US is to come into force, the European
Commission will appoint an interim "technical" supervisor to oversee the
searches of US authorities on European bank transactions as part of
anti-terrorist investigations.

After having initially rejected the agreement in February 2010, the
European Parliament accepted it in July 2010, imposing the appointment
of an EU supervisor who will be able to block part or all the searches
conducted by US authorities that go beyond the scope of the agreement,
such as random searches, computer filtering or algorithmic profiling.

As the procedure by which the US authorities will give clearance to the
EU independent supervisor will last at least two or three months, the EU
will appoint an interim supervisor for the time being.

"Because everything was rushed through, in the name of the 'security
gap', we are now facing a supervision gap. But it's better to have
someone provisionally than nobody at all," stated Dutch Liberal MEP
Sophie in't Veld for euobserver.com.

According to Michele Cercone, spokesman for home affairs, the name of
the interim person will not be made public and the appointment is a
technical and not a political one.

While the European Commission states that the appointment will be based
on an open contest, Ms in't Veld considers that the secrecy of the
interim appointment is a wrong approach. "We don't want someone in the
secret service, we need transparency, to be able to ask questions. It
doesn't have to be a terrorism fighter, the job of this person is to
oversee the implementation of the agreement. He or she should be a data
protection specialist".

In fact the MEPs have formally asked that the European Parliament be
involved in the selection of the oversight person when it gave its
consent to the SWIFT II agreement: "Invites the Commission, in
compliance with Article 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the
European Union, which requires that personal data be under the control
of "independent authorities", to submit to the European Parliament and
to the Council as soon as possible a choice of three candidates for the
role of the EU independent person referred to in Article 12(1) of the
Agreement"

US government declared its intention to work "very closely with the EU
to implement all aspects of the agreement, including the role of the
EU-appointed monitor." In the meantime the technical modalities for the
Europol supervision of SWIFT requests by the US Deparment of Treasury
have leaked on the Internet on 28 August 2010.

Commission official to bridge 'supervision gap' of Swift agreement
(29.07.2010)
http://euobserver.com:80/22/30558

EP adoption of SWIFT agreement (8.07.2010)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?type=TA&language=EN&reference=P7-TA-2010-0279

SWIFT: Technical modalities for the Europol verification process
(18.08.2010)
http://euro-police.noblogs.org/2010/08/swift-technical-modalities-for-the-europol-verification-process/

EDRi-gram: SWIFT agreement adopted by the European Parliament (14.07.2010)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number8.14/swift-20-adopted-european-parliament


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