Word: parliaments
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Lawmakers can be pesky obstacles for even the most democratic leaders, as the European Parliament proved earlier this month. Defying the combined pressure of the Obama Administration and top European leaders, Parliament members torpedoed a proposal that would have given the U.S. access to Europeans' banking details - seen by the U.S. as a vital counter-terrorism tool - on the grounds that it invaded people's privacy...
...vote has sparked the usual questions about whether there is a fundamental cultural divide between the U.S. and Europe over balancing security concerns with civil liberties. But the real significance may be simply institutional: the European Parliament, freshly endowed with new lawmaking powers following the passage of the Lisbon Treaty last year, is flexing its muscles as an emerging player in European politics. Suddenly, the legislative body has a semblance of real power - something it never really had before. (See the worst business deals...
...That Parliament members chose to take a stand on the bank data issue is a little surprising. The Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) has always been a controversial initiative. It was secretly set up after the Sept. 11 attacks, allowing CIA agents and U.S. Treasury officials to sift through the European financial messaging data collected by SWIFT, an international bank transfer consortium based in Belgium. When the arrangement came to light in 2006, it outraged civil liberties advocates and prompted the European Union to outline certain conditions under which the U.S. could access the information - the precursor to the arrangement...
...perfect, at least required U.S. authorities to abide by several European demands on data protection and improved oversight. Yet despite their pressure - and last-minute pleas by such high-ranking U.S. officials as Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner - the European Parliament voted down the measure on Feb. 11 by a hefty margin of 378-196. After the vote, the Obama Administration called it "a setback for U.S.-E.U. counter-terror cooperation." (See who's who in Barack Obama's White House...
Legislators who voted against the pact, however, said it was a victory for civil liberties. "Nobody is challenging the need for finance tracking to fight terrorism," says Reinhard Bütikofer, the leader of the German Parliament members from the Green Party. "But we challenge the idea this can only be done without privacy guarantees. We devalue democracy when we compromise on fundamental rights...