Commenting on the revelation that the US secret service NSA was also involved in the surveillance of SWIFT (the international bank transfer company), which was reported by the Washington Post based on new information from Edward Snowden (1), Green home affairs spokesperson Jan Philipp Albrecht, European Parliament rapporteur/draftsperson for new EU data protection rules, stated:

"The revelations about NSA surveillance of SWIFT make a mockery of the EU's agreement with the US, through which the bank data of European citizens is delivered to the US anti-terror system (TFTP). The European Commission must move immediately to terminate the SWIFT agreement. The NSA surveillance is an open breach of the agreement and further undermines the already insufficient data protection given to European citizens under the deal (2).

"If it is to be consistent, the European Parliament must act on this and press the European Commission to terminate the agreement. Failure to do so would be an act of hypocrisy. The Greens will press for action to this end immediately."

(1) Link to the Washington Post’s article: http://ow.ly/oGufT

(2) The European Parliament strongly criticised the random interception of data and rejected the initial EU-US SWIFT agreement in February 2010. The Greens opposed a subsequent agreement due to insufficient data protection provisions.