This post is based on a press release by the pirate party Germany, I will only present the main thoughts and the interested reader may read the original in German. [1]
Apparently the EU-commission and especially the commissar for the Interior Jacques Barrot are trying to push the planned SWIFT agreement [2] through the institutions by using uncommon methods. This agreement should allow US-agencies further access to transaction data of foreign based banks. Some EU-states already voiced their concerns about the agreement, but the commission seems willing to continue the process of signing such an agreement. netzpolitik.org recently published a document [2-3] that shows how the commission tries to convince those member states to ignore their concerns and agree on the draft. It is no wonder that they are accelerating the process, because from December 1st on the parliament, with its new powers due to the Lisbon treaty, will have a right to veto such agreements.
