EU Law Violated by US Authorities

According to a Belgian commission, the banking company Swift violated EU law when it supplied US authorities with private banking information. The report from the commission stated in part, "It has to be seen as a gross miscalculation by Swift that it has, for years, secretly and systematically transferred massive amounts of personal data for surveillance without effective and clear legal basis and independent controls in line with Belgian and European law."

EU law states that foreign companies may not provide private information about their customers to overseas countries, unless those countries can guarantee adequate protection of the information that is being shared.

The prime minister of Belgium, Guy Verhofstadt, stated that Swift has violated these laws for at least five years, but did acknowledge that the company was put in a rather tight spot, walking the line between US and EU law. Verhofstadt also acknowledged the fact that the data was useful in the war on terror, creating a catch-22 situation for many European companies.

Swift, which is short for Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunications is located just outside of Brussels and processes nearly 11 million financial transactions each day. Swift currently works with individuals and companies in over two hundred countries throughout the world.

The company defended their actions, stating that they only supplied the US with a limited amount of data. In addition, the information supplied was delivered by Swift's US location, and did not originate within the EU, further clouding the issue. According to the company, because they do have an office within the US, they were required to supply the data to US authorities, under US law.

Verhofstadt did say that Swift will not be barred from providing financial information to US authorities, but hopes that something will be decided between the EU and the US on similar cases in the future. He is calling for a new agreement between both sides to handle the transfer of information, a move which may be met with resistance from EU officials.

The president of Swift, Leonard Shrank, would also welcome a new agreement, preferably one that will not put them in violation of EU law. Privacy concerns continue to remain at the forefront both in the US and abroad. This banking information scandal, coupled with information about overseas CIA prisons has done little to improve the image of the US overseas.