By Justyna Pawlak BRUSSELS, June 24 (Reuters) - The European Parliament is set to approve next month a deal with the United States on sharing citizens' bank data with terrorism investigators, after winning concessions on protecting privacy from Washington.
Two parliamentary groups, the Socialists and the Liberals, said on Thursday they would back the agreement, after vetoing a previous version in February due to concerns about insufficient privacy safeguards. The parliament’s dominant centre-right EPP group also backs the agreement.
"We have a highly desirable deal for European citizens," said Claude Moraes, a Socialist member of the European Parliament from Britain.
Moraes said last minute negotiations on a deal struck by the EU’s executive Commission this month have led to provisions for greater scrutiny by EU representatives of how U.S. investigators use Europeans’ bank data.
U.S. terrorism investigators say monitoring private money transfers is vital to ensuring security in Europe and the United States. But exchanging data has become controversial in the EU.
In February, the European Parliament rejected an interim agreement with Washington, preventing investigators from accessing information from the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) which records the majority of bank transfers in the world.
SWIFT said in 2006 it had been cooperating with the U.S. authorities as part of their anti-terror activities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
Investigators lost access to its information when SWIFT moved some of its servers to Europe, forcing them to seek an agreement with the EU on data sharing.
Under a new deal negotiated over the past month, Europe’s police agency Europol would oversee requests for data transfers. Washington has also agreed to allow EU citizens to complain in a U.S. court if their data is misused.
The EU will also strive to start its own programme tracking terrorist finances to help investigations in Europe.
Parliament is expected to vote on the agreement on July 7 and EU governments are likely to back it in the next few days, diplomats said. "The message is that the member states are happy with the text," said an EU diplomat.
Parliament’s Green group still opposes the agreement on the grounds that it allows for the transfer of information to the United States in "bulk", but the EPP together with the Socialists and the Liberals have enough votes to approve it.
