The Commission presented a report on the Joint Report from the Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department regarding the value of TFTP Provided Data pursuant to Article 6 (6) of the Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of Financial Messaging Data from the European Union to the United States for the purposes of the Terrorist Finance Tracking Program.
Joint report: in accordance with TFTP Agreement, the European Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department have prepared the joint report regarding the value of Terrorist Finance Tracking Program (TFTP) Provided Data, with particular emphasis on the value of data retained for multiple years.
The modalities of this Report have been determined jointly by the European Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department, in line with Article 6 (6) of the Agreement.
The European Commission and the U.S. Treasury Department began discussions on the modalities, mandate, and methodology for the report in December 2012.
Member States and Europol have provided written contributions, which have been considered and reflected upon in the preparation of this Report. To this end, Europol issued a questionnaire to all concerned Member States in order to collect relevant information for its input for this Report. The questionnaire aimed at obtaining a current overview of the added value of TFTP Provided Data, in relation to specific cases investigated by competent authorities in relevant Member States.
Between 1 February and 24 May 2013, the U.S. assessment team interviewed counter terrorism investigators at a variety of agencies, reviewed counter terrorism cases in which the TFTP was used, and analysed over 1,000 TFTP reports to assess the value of TFTP-derived information.
Scope and main findings: the Report focuses on how the TFTP Provided Data have been used and the value the data bring to counter terrorism investigations in the United States and the EU. It includes multiple concrete examples where TFTP data, including data retained for three years or more, have been valuable in counter terrorism investigations, in the United States and the EU, before and since the Agreement entered into force on 1 August 2010.
In addition to this Report, other examples of the usefulness and value of the TFTP data have been presented in the context of the two joint reviews, carried out in February 2011 and October 2012, pursuant to Article 13 of the Agreement.
As a whole, these factual and concrete sets of information constitute a considerable step forward in further explaining the functioning and the added value of the TFTP.
The Report also describes the methodology for the assessment of retention periods by the U.S. Treasury Department and deletion of non-extracted data. The Report demonstrates that TFTP Provided Data, including data retained for multiple years, have been delivering very important value for the counter terrorism efforts in the United States, Europe, and elsewhere.