EUROPOOL - Joint Supervisory Body confirms progress in implementation of TFTP Agreement

21 March 2012
Recommendations for further improvements in certain areas.

Europol is satisfied with the report from the Joint Supervisory Body (JSB) received on 20 March 2012, following the JSB’s latest annual inspection of Europol’s role in the implementation of the EU-US Agreement on the Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP).

The EU-US TFTP Agreement came into force in August 2010. Under Article 4 of the Agreement Europol’s role is to verify, from an operational perspective, whether requests from the US authorities to obtain financial messaging data from the designated provider comply with certain specified requirements.

The first JSB inspection report (released in March 2011) contained five recommendations to improve Europol’s implementation of the EU-US TFTP Agreement. Working in partnership with the JSB and US authorities, over a number of meetings held in 2011 and 2012, Europol has addressed all of them as a matter of priority. This year’s JSB report acknowledges Europol’s efforts and finds that important progress has been made by the organisation in the implementation of its tasks under the Agreement and the specific JSB recommendations of last year. It also identifies where further improvements could still be made, for example in the exchange of information between the US authorities and Europol.

Europol remains committed to fulfilling its role under the Agreement to the highest possible standard. In this respect it is grateful for the positive contribution and constructive advice offered by the JSB. The cooperation between Europol and the JSB has already yielded significant benefits in terms of the implementation of this important agreement and will be the basis of further progress in 2012.

The purpose of the TFTP is to support the counter-terrorist activities of authorities in the US and Europe. For example, in one notable case in 2011, highlighted in the JSB report, concerning the atrocities and multiple murders in Norway, TFTP provided valuable and unique information to immediately assess the threat for EU Member States and to support the investigation.

https://www.europol.europa.eu/content/news/joint-supervisory-body-confirms-progress-implementation-tftp-agreement-1393