Carlos Coelho (PPE). – (PT) Mr President, in my country, if a police officer wishes to gain access to a bank account, he has to have a warrant. I cannot accept an agreement whereby thousands or millions of bank details are transferred to an American police officer for perusal without requiring the permission of a court. The interim agreement that was negotiated lacks data protection. Data protection is not a luxury – it is a prerequisite of our freedom. There is a lack of reciprocity and a lack of proportionality. We cannot allow this.

We certainly hope that the final agreement will be properly negotiated. How can it be negotiated? Is it negotiated from a poor basis or a reasonable basis? I believe that it is better for us not to have a bad interim agreement than to have any agreement at all. If we refuse the interim agreement, it means that we have a good base for negotiating the final agreement.