Commission prepares the establishment of European Terrorist Finance Tracking System

The European Commission adopted a Communication outlining the main options for establishing a European Terrorist Finance Tracking System (TFTS), which represents an initial response to the request to prepare a legal and technical framework for establishing such a system within the European Union. On the other hand, the Civil Liberties Committee at European Parliament asked for a counter-terrorism policy based on evidence, not on assumptions.

According to the Commission, the system must contribute to limiting the amount of personal data transferred to the US and it should contribute significantly to efforts to cut off terrorists' access to funding and materials and follow their transactions, as main objectives. The European Union and the United States of America signed on June 28th 2010 an EU-US agreement on the processing and transfer of financial messaging data (the so-called SWIFT Agreement) for purposes of the US Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP). One of the key elements of the agreement is the supervision of requests for information by the USA; this will be carried out by the European Police Office, Europol.

With this Communication, the Commission presents the different options under consideration at this stage without indicating any preferred one. The Commission will now discuss these options in detail with the Council and the European Parliament before deciding on further steps on the basis of a thorough impact assessment.

On the other hand, the Civil Liberties Committee at European Parliament adopted a resolution by a narrow difference – just five votes -, in which MEPs stressed the need for a proper evaluation of measures taken to combat terrorism in Europe and urge the Commission to present a study on the cost of counter-terrorism policy. The committee also called on the Commission to draw up a map of all existing counter-terrorism policies in Europe, at both EU and national levels, to serve as a basis for the evaluation.