On Monday, the EU Council is set to give the USA all of its SWIFT banking data. In its quest to catch tax cheats, the US searched through everything they could lay their hands upon, including other countries’ data. Once it was revealed that the US had access to the SWIFT data through the US data centers, the EU shifted its transactions away from the US servers. Now, however, with the new treaty the US will have access to all EU interbank transfers, despite the cry from within the EU not to do this. This means that the US will have access to banking data that also includes non-SWIFT data.

“The move of SWIFT the data server to Switzerland would be an excellent opportunity to stop the nearly unlimited access of US authorities on EU bank transactions. But EU justice and interior ministers are apparently keen [on agreeing to] a deal as soon as possible, on 30 November. Why 30 November? Because one day later, on 1 December 2009, the EU’s Lisbon Treaty will be in force and would allow the European Parliament to play a major role in the negotiations of the deal with the US. A deal one day before will be a slap in the face to democracy in the EU. … [W]hile the US will be able to access EU banking data, no access to US banking data by EU [authorities] is being foreseen.”

Providing this goes into effect before December 1st, there is no way the European Parliament will have a say in the matter, despite their protestations.

A country simply needs to make a request for data and they will get what they need. Also included in the treaty is wording that claims that, if the specific data cannot be obtained, the EU will send bulk data to the country asking for the information and it will be up to them to sort out what they need.

According to article 5 of the treaty, any country in the world connected with fighting terrorism can gain access to this data.

article 5 (h): “Information obtained through this Agreement shall only be shared with law enforcement, public security, or counter terrorism authorities in the United States, European Union, or third states to be used for the purpose of the investigation, prevention, or prosecution of terrorism or its financing.”

Interestingly enough, this deal has no reciprocity for the EU. The US gets what it wants and doesn’t have to share its data. This treaty will catch a few tax cheats while risking the privacy of millions of everyday people. Is such a treaty really beneficial to anyone other than the spying governments who are pushing for this to happen?