Report on the 5th joint review of the implementation of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data

Summary:

Report presented on 22 July 2019 by the European Commission on the fifth joint review of the EU-US Agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP).

Further information:

The TFTP is a key instrument to provide timely, accurate and reliable information to identify and track terrorists and their support networks worldwide. EU Member States and Europol have increasingly used the mechanism and the number of leads generated by TFTP soared between 2016 and 2018 to 70,991 as compared to 8,998 in the previous reporting period. In this report, the Commission suggests that Member States provide regular feedback on the leads received from the US and encourages Europol's continued efforts in providing support to Member States.

The functioning of the Agreement, the joint review process, its outcome and recommendations are described in detail in the Staff Working Document accompanying the report.

Background:

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 (TFTP) entered into force on 1 August 2010.

Article 13 of the Agreement provides for regular joint reviews of the safeguards, controls, and reciprocity provisions to be conducted by review teams from the EU and the US, including the European Commission, the US Treasury Department and representatives of two data protection authorities from EU Member States. The next joint review of the Agreement is expected in 2021.

EUR-Lex: SWD(2019)301: Commission Staff Working Document accompanying COM(2019)342 https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/?uri=SWD:2019:301:FIN

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