US access to European bank data

23.9.2011

Question for written answer E-008752/2011
to the Commission
Rule 117
Alexander Alvaro (ALDE)

According to the leaked US State Department cable ‘08VIENNA1717’, published by Wikileaks, the US Embassy in Vienna asked Raiffeisen Zentralbank Österreich (RZB) to hand over ‘detailed data on its payments/correspondent business’ linked to Iran.

According to the leaked US State Department cable ‘10LISBON66’, published by Wikileaks, Portugal’s Millennium BCP bank offered US officials access to transactional data on certain Iranian accounts in exchange for not challenging the institution on opening trade and finance relationships with at least four Iranian banks.

Is the Commission aware of these incidents?

Is the Commission aware of any similar incidents?

Is the Commission planning to investigate these incidents?

Is the Commission planning to draw any conclusions from these incidents?

How are these incidents consistent with the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program?

How are these incidents consistent with the communication on a European terrorist finance tracking system?

How are these incidents consistent with the current negotiations on a general EU‑US data protection agreement?

OJ C 154 E, 31/05/2012