Brussels, 27/03/2003 (Agence Europe) - The Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights staged a public hearing on 25 March to consider the theme of data protection since 11 September 2001: a strategy for Europe. This is a sequel to a resolution MEPS voted for during a Strasbourg session in March (see EUROPE of 13 March, p.13), which was very scathing about the European Commission. The disagreement hinges on allowing the United States access to databases European airlines have with details about passengers travelling to American soil. The hearing was design to highlight what is at stake in the agreement and what a struggle it is to strike the right balance between data protection and security requirements in the wake of the 11 September terrorist attacks. The President of the Article 29 Committee (representing national data protection authorities), Stefano Rodotà , said the EU had come under "heavy pressure" to grant more priority to security than Community law.
Cédric Laurant, policy advisor to the Washington-based Electronic Privacy Information Center, hit out at the "reversal of the presumption of innocence". He said that information gathered by the US authorities could be kept up to 50 years and even used for purposes other than those officially specified. He spoke of the need to ask the four following questions: are these measures genuinely effective, balanced and suitable?; 2) what is the role of private agencies?;3)how can transparency be guaranteed?; 4) what means of appeal do European citizens have? The MEP Elena Paciotti (Démocratici di sinistra) is pressing the EU to get the US administration to agree to the principle of reciprocity" so the European authorities can gain access to information about American passengers travelling to the Old World. According to Andreas Dietl, representing European digital rights (EDRi), "either we no longer go the United States or we bow to the new legislation and agree to personal data being revealed". A representative of European airlines stresses that the information applies to "all kinds of medical details or even food habits." In the presentation paper for the hearing, the European Parliament bemoans the lack of a consistent approach" in the European Union about data protection. The EU does not have clear legal responsibilities and so struggles to legislate in the absence of a European law and order concept accepted by the Member States".
The Greek Presidency, represented by Panagiotis Giannakopoulos, has no wish to amend Directive 95/46 on data protection although it plans to present a "proposal about creating a single data protection system for the first and second pillars" . Mr Rodotà said the European Convention would consider the "scope for having a specific article on data protection" whilst avoiding any "overlapping" with article 8 of the Charter on fundamental rights, where this principle is "set" on a constitutional footing". He recommended" effective protection subject to an independent monitoring authority". Meeting under the presidency of Jorge Salvador Hernández Mollar of Spain, who is the head of the Parliamentary Committee, the participants heard a European Commission assessment of the delay in applying Directive 95/46 on data protection: "Italy and Greece were very late transposing the Directive and we discovered it has been unevenly applied in several Member States", according to Susan Binns, who says the Commission has not ruled out the possibility of initiating infringement proceedings.
Two parties turned down invitations to the hearing: representatives to the United States Mission to the European Union, claiming they did not have enough time to prepare their statement, and representatives of European consumers, who decided against adopting a position on this prickly issue relating to the jurisdiction of the national authorities" The European Commission and the United States are poised to negotiate a formal agreement, because this measure, which is causing much alarm among MEPs, does not have a firm legal basis.