BRUSSELS, June 15 (Reuters) - The European Union has struck a deal with the United States on sharing citizens' bank data in pursuit of terrorism suspects, after winning concessions on privacy protection from Washington, EU officials said. 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 due to concerns over privacy safeguards.
"We have an agreement that considerably improves data protection of our citizens," EU Commissioner for Internal Affairs Cecilia Malmstrom said after the two sides agreed a provisional deal after weeks of negotiations.
The deal reached by the EU executive still has to be approved by the 27 EU states and the European Parliament, whose members vetoed a previous arrangement in February over concerns about data protection.
Under the new deal, Europe’s police agency Europol would oversee requests for data transfers and an EU representative would monitor how information was used in the United States. Washington has also agreed to allow EU citizens to complain in U.S. court if their data is misused.
EU lawmakers had sought assurances that only data relevant to investigations was provided and that it was not transferred to the United States in "bulk".
They also raised concerns over citizens’ ability to complain if their information was incorrect or wrongly used, and whether the United States would give Europeans access to its information if needed.
In the vote by EU governments, backing by Germany, where concerns over data privacy are among the most pronounced in Europe, will be key.
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso appealed to members of parliament for support, saying the deal was vital to relations with the United States and to security.
"Our American partners consider it probably one of or the first priority in discussions with us," he said in parliament. "It is extremely important for the security of Europe’s citizens."
Parliamentary groups which had opposed the original deal in February have so far refrained from backing the new plan.
Most international bank transfers are recorded by the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication (SWIFT) and data stored on its European computer servers is not available to investigators from the United States.
SWIFT said in 2006 that it had been cooperating with the U.S. authorities as part of their anti-terror activities after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, but investigators lost access to its information when SWIFT moved some of its servers to Europe.
