Europe Not Sharing Bank Data with U.S.

The U.S. request for the European Union to share bank data to aid in tracking down terrorists has been rejected.

This means the banking details of millions of both ordinary European citizens and – what the deal is aimed at – potential financers of international terrorism will be out of reach for the US.

The most active opponents of the agreement claimed that if the tables were turned and it was the EU government going to US Congress, asking them to allow the transfer of bank details of US citizens to a foreign country, there is no way such a decision would be made.

Interestingly, 378 lawmakers voted against the interbank transfer system and only 196 were in support.

EU and US officials have warned there would be a security gap if the deal was rejected, and diplomats in Brussels fear Washington could turn to old bilateral methods of collecting data without proper safeguards.

"This is a serious setback in the fight against terrorism as the agreement has supplied vital leads against those terrorists responsible for planning or committing attacks against EU citizens," a British government spokesman said.

An EU diplomat said the decision meant that "now the United States can walk away, ignore any concerns we have and stop providing the vital leads we need to help to prevent terrorist attacks."

The parliament was elected in June last year, and beyond privacy concerns, some deputies are keen to flex new political muscle that the assembly won under the Lisbon reform treaty which entered force in December.

"The US administration may have wrongly thought they could deal with the European parliament like Gulliver with the Lilliputians," said Martin Schulz, leader of the Socialist bloc, the second biggest in the assembly.

WTF? The U.S. administration has been apologizing and bowing to the entire international community. If anything, the Obama crowd has exhibited weakness, not strength.