(BRUSSELS) - The European Union hopes to conclude next year a deal to protect personal data given to the United States to fight terrorism, but a senior negotiator warned Wednesday of tough talks ahead.

"I hope -- because we need this fairly soon, because the uncertainty is still out there -- I hope within the next year or so," said Jonathan Faull, head of the European Commission's justice, freedom and security department.

Over the last 18 months, the commission and US justice authorities have been trying to narrow down a set of core principles to protect information about Europeans handed to the United States, and offer them legal recourse if needed.

The need for such an all-encompassing accord has become necessary since the September 11, 2001 attacks, which prompted the United States to strengthen security laws and insist on access to more data to prevent a repeat.

"It's very much in our interests to pin our American friends down to a set of agreed, common -- we hope binding -- principles. We are 70-80 percent of the way there," Faull told reporters in Brussels.

But he warned: "The remaining discussions will not be easy."

Brussels and Washington have already agreed 12 principles, including on security, what constitutes sensitive data, the purpose of its use and effective and independent oversight of exchanges.

However a key obstacle remains the right of a person to take court action if information about them is misused, as Europeans currently do not have the same legal rights in the United States as US citizens do in Europe.

Faull said such an agreement "would give us a platform of agreed data protection principles on which we still have to build further negotiations of detail."

He underlined that "it will not be blanket authorisation for data transfers between the European Union and the United States."

He also played down concerns that Washington would eventually be able to have access to data contained in the vast computer system used to control border crossings in Europe's so-called Schengen passport free zone.

"We are not opening up the Schengen database. Fullstop," he said.

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