July 3, 2006 : Deputy wants to involve CIA investigation committee of the European Parliament:

André Brie demands information on data transfer of European Banks to the US bureaucracy

Immediately before the debate of the European Parliament on data protection in the case of money wires, the deputy André Brie has demanded information on new indications, following which European Banks passed on customer data to US authorities or tolerated data transmission. “Apparently, the transfer of personal data by institutions and firms in the EU to US authorities is more widespread than was known up now”, the Left Party politician declared on Monday in Strasbourg. Last week a Belgian newspaper had reported that the finance transfer service agent SWIFT had passed on data sets to US authorities. This had also been known to the European Central Bank and the Belgian National Bank BNB. The deputy announced that he would charge the CIA investigatory commission of the European Parliament to deal with this question.

“In the fight against international terrorism, basic and citizen's rights must continue to be strictly observed”, Brie observed. The deputy pointed out that the European Court of Law in connection with the transfer of flight passenger data from the EU to the USA had determined that a legal basic was lacking for such action. Moreover, personal data were not only passed on to the security authorities, but by different ways also got into the hands of other institutions and firms. Brie spoke out for clear criteria that would prevent an illegal transfer of personal data by European institutions and enterprises to the USA.