BRUSSELS - The Belgium government said on Thursday that negotiations between the European Union and the United States would be necessary to create common data privacy rules relating to records of banking transactions. Belgium has been at the centre of a controversy since media reports revealed the US Treasury Department had tapped into records of the Brussels-based Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT) in a search for evidence for terrorism-related activities.The US searches triggered fears that European laws regarding data privacy were not respected and that banking records could be used for industrial and financial espionage against European companies. ”A legal conflict (between the two jurisdictions) has come to light and it must be resolved through a thorough dialogue with the US,” Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt told a news conference.
Verhofstadt said that his government would neither take action against SWIFT nor demand that it ceased complying with
The Belgian government does not challenge the necessity of transferring private data in the context of the struggle against terrorism, Verhofstadt said.
| "No, no, certainly not! We must have rules, strong rules, rules decided over lunch and wine and cheese and desert ..." |
Swift Chief Executive Leonard Schrank said his company would support talks between the EU and the United States. ”We wholeheartedly support calls for US and EU authorities to work together to develop an improved framework to reconcile data privacy protections with today’s pressing security concerns,” Schrank said in a statement.
| "Would you guys just leave us alone?" |