Data protection - SWIFT and PNR

Speech by Sarah Ludford MEP delivered to European Parliament on Tue 30th Jan 2007

Sarah Ludford (ALDE). - Mr President, I do not doubt Commissioner Frattini's own personal good faith and commitment to data protection. But I think the Commission, as well as the Council, are being as feeble about SWIFT privacy abuses as they have been over PNR over the last four years. This is European data, belonging to European citizens, made available for commercial purposes in Europe under the protection of European data protection law. But despite the persistent and insistent demands of MEPs, the EU, in the less than robust hands of the Council and Commission, has allowed a large degree of US extra-territorial jurisdiction. In any global framework for exchange of mass commercial data for security purposes, the EU must forcefully project its own laws and principles.

Commissioner, you say that it is 'unlikely' that SWIFT data have been used in the automated targeting system, which is a profiling exercise assigning a risk score to each individual based on assumptions - and no doubt stereotypes - deriving from their behaviour and characteristics. But why do you not know categorically, yes or no, whether SWIFT data has been used in ATS? In relation to PNR, you accept the Department of Homeland Security's assurance that the use of PNR data for profiling complies with the undertakings of the PNR agreement. But do you agree with the DHS assessment? Yes or no? The lack of clear answers is undermining trust, and I think that we are owed those clear answers as to the Commission's legal evaluation.