Countering the financing of terrorism is a core component of the EU’s strategy in the fight against terrorism. As terrorists and their supporters constantly modify their ways to collect, move and gain access to funds, the EU needs to adapt its instruments and measures to deny them resources.
One of these measures is the Agreement concluded with the US allowing the transfer of financial messaging data from EU providers to the US for the purpose of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Programme (TFTP).
The Agreement includes appropriate safeguards to accommodate legitimate concerns about security of information, privacy and respect of fundamental rights, and more specifically:
– safeguards natural persons’ data protection rights relating to transparency, access, rectification and deletion of inaccurate data;
– guarantees rights to administrative redress (including in front of US judiciary);
– acknowledges the principle of proportionality as a guiding principle for its application.
Under the Agreement, Europol assesses whether the request for data is necessary for the fight against terrorism and its financing and verifies that each request is tailored as narrowly as possible to minimise the amount of data requested. If a request for data does not meet these conditions, no data can be transferred.
All searches performed on the provided data are monitored by independent overseers, including persons appointed by the European Commission, who have the authority:
– to review, in real time and retroactively, all searches performed;
– to request additional justification for justifying the link of these searches to terrorism;
– to block any or all searches that appear to be in breach of the safeguard laid down in the Agreement.
Information on exercising your rights related to the Programme:
17.05.2021
