As part of the war on terror, American intelligence services have been monitoring European bank transactions since 2001. When the E.U. found out about it in 2006, they were outraged. But now it looks like the bloc will agree to a controversial deal that will allow the covert data transfer to continue.

The pressure from the Americans was "massive," say diplomats in Brussels. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton apparently told her European counterparts that the fate of the West hung in the balance. And in the capital cities of Europe, American ambassadors stormed governments like door-to-door salespeople. As one E.U. foreign minister put it, "they pulled out all the moral and political stops."

Because what the Americans were selling was controversial indeed. Early next week, the European Parliament's Justice and Home Affairs Council will meet and decide upon a draft agreement between the E.U. and U.S., the so-called "SWIFT agreement." This agreement allows the U.S. ongoing access to European banking data for the purposes of anti-terrorism investigations.

And, the Americans said, if Washington's security services were now refused access to the financial transactions of European citizens, then an essential element of the war on terror would be missing. Security levels would drop, the threat of new terrorist attacks would rise - including in Europe. And who would want to be responsible for that?