Europe criticizes reports of data exchange deals with the US

The European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee has criticized EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom for "ignoring" Parliament's call to suspend the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) deal with the US. The committee said in a statement on Thursday that most speakers asked for proof during a debate on Wednesday, that the US had not breached the agreement and called for a data extraction system on EU soil to avoid sending bulk data to the US. "I have received no evidence that the TFTP agreement has been breached," the EU Commissioner told MEPs. On his part, German MEP Jan Philipp Albrecht said "we cannot accept that the Commission simply ignores Parliament's request" to suspend the TFTP agreement. This is a "severe inter-institutional problem", he noted. Several MEPs stressed that assurances from the US are not enough and demanded proof that these agreements had not been violated. Replying to MEPs' questions, Malmstrom said "The Commission is not the police, we cannot investigate, and we can ask questions." On the National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance she said that "We are still very concerned with what the NSA has been doing, we didn't get all the answers and we will keep on pushing."