欧洲议会批准一项同美国的协议,准许美国反恐调查人员进入欧洲银行转帐信息系统。
华盛顿和欧盟就提高保护隐私力度问题,经过了几个星期的谈判才达成这项协议。欧盟议员以对隐私权担忧为由,在二月份否决了此法案的早期版本。
星期四通过的这项协议意味着,美国将可以从八月一日起重新进入欧洲银行转帐数据库。
美国分析人士从2001年9月美国遭遇恐怖袭击以来就开始审查这类数据。
但是控制这些数据的环球银行金融电讯协会自那时起从美国搬迁到比利时。在比利时,严格的欧盟隐私法限制搜集类似的信息。
The European Parliament has approved a deal with the United States granting U.S. terrorism investigators access to information on European bank transfers.
The agreement follows weeks of negotiations between Washington and the European Union aimed at boosting privacy provisions. EU lawmakers, citing privacy concerns, rejected a previous bill in February.
Thursday’s ratification means the United States will again have access to the banking transfer data beginning August 1.
U.S. analysts had been examining such data since the September 2001 terror attacks on the United States.
But the company controlling the data, the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, known as SWIFT, has since relocated from the United States to Belgium, where strict EU privacy laws limit the gathering of such information.