Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions – A European terrorist finance tracking system: available options

When the Council agreed to the conclusion of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (EU-US TFTP Agreement), it also invited the Commission to submit to the European Parliament and the Council within one year after the date of entry into force of the Agreement (1 August 2010), "a legal and technical framework for extraction of data on EU territory".

Given the proven effectiveness of the US TFTP, a European system is expected to contribute significantly to efforts to cut off terrorists' access to funding and materials and follow their transactions.

This Communication is the first stage of the Commission's response to the Council's invitation. It describes the different steps the Commission has taken to move towards establishing such a "legal and technical framework", and presents the different options under consideration for achieving this goal. It does not at this stage indicate one preferred option – it does however present the relevant points to take into consideration with respect to the options considered.

Given the political importance of the issue and its legal and technical complexity, the Commission wishes to inform the Council and the European Parliament of the state of play, and trigger a debate. The Commission considers such further debate useful before presenting, on the basis of an Impact Assessment, concrete proposals.

EUR-Lex: COM(2011)429: Follow the progress of this document through the decision-making procedure http://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/HIS/?uri=COM:2011:429:FIN

---