Toespraak van Duitse minister over SWIFT (en)

President,

Let me now turn to the Oral question by the Honourable Members Berès und Cavada concerning the SWIFT-dossier.

The Council would like to thank the Honourable Members for their interest in the SWIFT file. Various questions from Honourable Members have already been answered and the I would like to draw your attention to answers already given in that context.

In December 2006, the Council informed the Honourable Members that the issues raised require careful considerations and are being examined within the Council. This examination is at the moment not yet finalised. The Council will hereafter endeavour to answer the various questions of the Honourable Members taking into account that all aspects referred to are part of this examination.

The Finnish Minister for European Affairs, at that time holding the Presidency of the Council, spoke to the Plenary in July 2006 and stated that the Council at that stage was not able to confirm reports in the media about exchanges of information between SWIFT and the American authorities. The Minister also reminded the MEPs that it is up to national authorities to establish what has actually happened. It was also stated that the EU would be and is still ready to act if it turns out that things have taken place that requires legislation at the European level. As already stated above the Council and the Commission are still examining all the relevant aspects and issues at stake in this file taking into account the findings of the Article 29 Working Party.

The Presidency is currently reflecting on how to organise the work within the Council on this issue, taking into account the results of the ongoing examinations, and the Council informs the Honourable Members that no new Working Group with the suggested intention has so far been created in the Council.

At this stage - still ongoing examination - the Council is not in a position to answer the question on the consequences, if any, to Regulation (EC) No 1781/2006 of 15 November 2006 on information on the payer accompanying transfer of funds. The Council is not aware that the Commission is considering presenting a proposal to amend this Regulation.

According to the Treaty, it is the role of the Commission to follow the implementation of EC-legislation in the EU MS, and to take appropriate action in case a Member State has infringed upon its obligation according to EC legislation.

The US Automatic Targeting System is related to inbound and outbound cargo and traffic and whether data collected by SWIFT are fed into this system is also one of the issues under examination.

The statement of the Article 29 Working Party that an existing international framework is already available in the fight against terrorism is a reference to the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the adopted Recommendations and Special Recommendations in the fight against money laundering and terrorist financing. The Council is of the opinion that a lot of good work is being done in this framework, but the FATF Recommendations are directed to banks and financial institutions. In this context, the Council would like to point out that SWIFT cannot be considered as a financial institution in the sense as is meant by the FATF. Therefore, the framework of the FATF is not directly applicable, but may be taken into account as regards specific aspects.