European parliamentarians have voted in favour of suspending the EU/US bank data sharing deal in response to the US National Security Agency's alleged tapping of messages transmitted over the Swift banking network.
The non-binding resolution, voted by parliament on Wednesday, was passed by 280 votes to 254, with 30 abstentions.
Although parliament has no formal powers to initiate the suspension or termination of an international deal, "the Commission will have to act if parliament withdraws its support for a particular agreement", says the approved text. It adds that parliament will take account of the Commission's response to this demand when considering whether to give its consent to future international agreements.
In passing the motion, MEPs urged EU countries to authorise an inquiry by Europol's Cybercrime Centre to investigate the allegations, describing the failure to act so far as deplorable.
The resolution also calls for a "full on-site technical investigation" of allegations of the US authorities having had unauthorised access to, or having created possible "back doors" into, the Swift servers - an allegation that the Belgium-based banking co-operative denies.