Brussels, 25/03/2011 (Agence Europe) - France has decided to maintain restrictions on carrying liquids, gels and aerosol preparations in air passengers' hand luggage, despite the entry into force, on 29 April, of rules making these restrictions flexible for passengers from third countries transiting through European airports. “Neither the technology nor the international situation are sufficiently secure for giving up on this”, the French secretary of state for transport, Thierry Mariani, said during a meeting with a group of European journalists in Brussels on Thursday 24 March. The same decision was announced on Thursday by the Italian authorities which speak of the “unstable political context” due to the situation in North Africa. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom must adopt similar measures, according to a press release from the Italian Ministry of Transport.
The French stance was presented to the European Commission on 1 March by the minister for sustainable development, ecology, transport and housing, Nathalie Kosciuszko-Morizet, in a letter sent to Siim Kallas on 1 March. France above all considers that the current detection technology is neither sufficiently reliable nor effective. A large part of the detectors require manual checking of content (the liquid content must be withdrawn from luggage and opened to be checked, experts say), while others account for an over-high alarm rate (see EUROPE 10323).
Another element put forward was the effort required for installing machines for the detection of explosives in liquids. In France, the Paris-Charles de Gaulle airport has over 23,000 connections and passenger interchange possibilities in less than two hours per week, which makes it the largest European hub in terms of number of transit possibilities. The slightest failure of the scanning system would cause serious upheavals in the flow of passengers. Furthermore, equipping such an airport in terms of liquid explosive detection apparatus would require the acquisition of an unusually large number of machines compared to most European hubs, according to the letter seen by EUROPE. Paris also highlights the constant terrorist threat that is even greater now with the recent Libyan crisis. The letter goes on to say that air transport remains a particularly attractive target for international terrorism. Like Rome, Paris evokes heightened risk due to the growing instability in North Africa, and Libya. As one French expert pointed out, French aviation has already been the target of a terrorist attack involving Libyans (attack against a UTA DC10 in September 1989).
In order to maintain status quo, both Paris and Rome take Article 6 of the regulation on air safety (300/2008/EC) as a basis, as it allows EU member states to adopt stricter measures than those allowed at European level. The French position should be confirmed legally, which does not in any case, however, mean that France hopes to delay the deadline of 29 April 2013 set for lifting restrictions for all air passengers. (A.By./transl.jl)