"The EU-US TFTP (Terrorism Finance Tracking Programme) agreement must be suspended," GUE/NGL MEP Kyriacos Triantaphyllides said today in the European Parliament following a debate on a report that highlights fundamental concerns in particular about EU transfers of bulk data to US authorities.

"This agreement has been clearly used to send massive amounts of personal data in bulk, something the agreement was supposed to make impossible. It should be suspended. At the very least, we would like a revision of core article 4 of the agreement, and much stricter conditions for transfer combined with much more stringent control on the EU side" said Triantaphyllides.

The conclusions by the Joint Supervisory Board - the body that monitors whether Europol is adequately implementing the TFTP agreement on data protection grounds - were set out by the board's Chair Nataša Pirc Musar today in Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee.

MEP Cornelia Ernst also expressed outrage at the complete classification of the report. "Citizens have the right to be able to see if the data protection standards that are there to protect their personal data are upheld. It is urgent that we ensure that Europol is in compliance with the relevant regulations and can guarantee the rights of individuals in the handling and exchange of the extensive amounts of information on EU citizens in its possession."