Brussels, 14/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 14 November, the European Commission adopted new rules authorising the generalised use of body scanners in EU airports, together with safeguards regarding health and privacy. These European rules do not make it obligatory for airports to deploy body scanners, but where these exist, they must be brought into line with a number of standards.
Body scanners, or security scanners, as the Commission now calls them, have come in for much criticism from the European Parliament, despite having taken position in July in favour of the generalised use of this tool. They are already widely used in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands and have been tested in a number of other member states, such as France, Italy and Belgium, the Commission explained on Monday. Designed essentially to fight attempted terrorist attacks, they started to be rolled out after the suspected attempt in 2009 by Nigerian Umar Faruk Abdulmutallab to blow up the Amsterdam-Detroit flight. But they very quickly raised fundamental rights questions, particularly among the MEPs, who are concerned at the intrusive nature of the device.
This is why, in order to respond to the concerns of the EP, the Commission wanted body scanners to be used under strict conditions, it explains. First of all, passengers are duly informed about the device and may decide to opt out and be subjected to an alternative method of screening. The face will be blurred and the images checked in a separate room and the agent in charge of this will have no link to the passenger in question. Nor will the images be stored, copied or printed out.
As regards health, “only security scanners which do not use x-ray technology will be added to the list of authorised methods” in the EU, the Commission continues, thereby granting another request of the EP. And “all other technologies, such as that used for mobile phones and others, can be used provided that they comply with EU security standards”, states the Commission.
The competent commissioner, Siim Kallas, acknowledges in a press release that these body scanners are “not a panacea”, but offer a real possibility to “reinforce passenger security”, as they detect both metal and non-metal. According to the commissioner, experience has also already shown that “passengers and staff” generally see the body scanners as “a convenient method of screening”, he adds.
These proposals are part of a regulation put forward by the Commission in July of this year, then dealt with using the comitology procedure. The EP had a period of three months starting from then to voice its opposition, which it did not do. On 14 November, therefore, the Commission definitively adopted the regulation. Once it has been published in the Official Journal of the EU in the next few days, it can be expected to be in force by mid-December. (SP/transl.fl)