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May 7, 2010

Biden Urges EU to Provide Passenger, Financial Data
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Vice President Joe Biden appeared before the European Parliament on
Thursday to urge passage of a measure that would grant U.S. customs
officials access to European passenger data. Biden said the measure was
needed to help find terror suspects.

Vice President Joe Biden: "It is vital that we maintain every capacity
that we have under the law to stop such attacks and for that reason we
believe that the terrorist finance tracking program is essential to our
security as well as to yours, presumptive me to say. It has provided
critical leads to counter-terrorism investigation on both sides of the
Atlantic, disrupting plots and ultimately saving lives.’’

Biden’s speech came one day after European lawmakers postponed a vote on
the measure to ensure stronger privacy safeguards. The U.S. also wants
the European Union to reverse its decision to end a controversial
data-sharing program that’s allowed the US to monitor millions of
international financial transactions.



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