Brussels, 09/11/2010 (Agence Europe) - For the time being, the European Union is putting to one side the German idea of drawing up a list of high-risk airports in order to improve air freight security, the Belgian Presidency of the EU Council announced on Monday 8 November. “There is no agreement between the EU27 to create a similar blacklist of high-risk countries”, the Belgian home minister, Annemie Turtelboom, said after a meeting with her colleagues in Brussels. During this meeting, ministers discussed ways to remedy security shortcomings after the wave of foiled parcel bomb attacks on flights between Greece and Yemen. Germany has put forward five proposals, including a blacklist of high-risk airports with controls stepped up for packages from a number of countries. (See EUROPE 10252). Failing an immediate agreement, ministers decided to form an “ad hoc group” made up of experts responsible for presenting proposals for their next meeting on 2 December, in association with transport ministers. “This ad hoc working group has been tasked with developing very practical short term measures, especially for sending experts to a number of airports to step up the quality controls there”, Turtelboom announced. The aim is to achieve greater harmonisation of security measures applied to air freight as measures vary today from one country to another. Annemie Turtelboom said she hoped common standards would be set in place for determining which of the EU airports and those of third countries pose problems. She went on to say that risk analysis must be developed for airport transit areas and the type of package to be controlled from specific destinations must be determined. The working group should develop checklists for airports in third countries which could, in the longer term, be given technical assistance. European Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gilles de Kerchove, who has just returned from Yemen, said the EU should proceed in two ways - by taking provisional, very short term measures and also by taking longer term measures to give muscle to response action.
Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström explained that one should not be hasty but take the time to make the right decisions. The home and transport ministers should find a compromise between security and trade. The European commissioner for transport, Siim Kallas, had last Friday called for excessive measures not to be introduced as this could be a burden on airlines and airports. (B.C./transl/jl)