Commission rejects talks on SWIFT with US

The European Commission has said it does not intend to enter negotiations with the US for a deal to clear up legal issues on the transfer of European citizens' banking information.

The statement comes after last week’s opinion by the EU’s data protection supervisors, which said transfers by the financial messaging service, SWIFT, to the US authorities for counter-terrorism purposes were illegal and must be brought in line with EU law.

Franco Frattini, justice, freedom and security commissioner, said this week the opinion did not concern EU-US relations, but "the full implementation of European legislation" on data protection.

SWIFT said it would like to see a political agreement between the EU and US to clear up any issues with the ongoing transfers, which they say they were compelled to carry out because of US subpoenas. Changing their systems or stopping the transfers to the US authorities is not feasible, they say. Their call for an agreement is backed by Guy Verhofstadt, prime minister of Belgium, where SWIFT is based, and Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank.

The European Commission has said it does not intend to enter negotiations with the US for a deal to clear up legal issues on the transfer of European citizens' banking information.