The Rejection of the EU-US SWIFT Interim Agreement by the European Parliament: A Historic Vote and Its Implications

Abstract

If one looks at the participation in European elections -only 43% in 2009 -one can get the impression that European citizens do not consider the European Parliament as all that relevant. Since 11 February 2010, they have one more reason to reconsider their view: On that day the Parliament refused to give its consent to an EU-US agreement on the sharing of fi nancial data that had already been signed and provisionally entered into force. It did so against appeals from the Commission and the EU Presidency, against signifi cant pressure from several Member States and against an unprecedented direct lobbying from the US side, and it did so both on grounds of protecting citizens' safeguards regarding the transfer and use of personal fi nancial data and for affi rming its own prerogatives. The rejection of the so-called Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) Interim Agreement can be considered as one of the so far not so many historic votes of the Parliament on an EU external relations issue -with signifi cant implications for EU external relations. Before looking at these, it may be useful to recall the main facts of the transatlantic SWIFT saga.