Brussels, 27/05/2003 (Agence Europe) - The American government has not given sufficient guarantees on the protection of the personal data of European airline passengers, to which the United States have had access since 5 March, said Jonathan Todd, spokesperson for Internal Market Commissioner Frits Bolkestein on Monday.
After several video conferences, the Commission remains dissatisfied with American commitments on three points in particular: 1) the lack of installation of "filters" by the American authorities in European airlines' reservation systems, to restrict access to passenger data; 2) the right of airline passengers to appeal if the information stored is wrong, and the independence of the body responsible for carrying out checks; 3) the possibility for the EU to check whether data is collected in the context of the fight against terrorism, and the conditions for access to these data by various American federal agencies.
"We will present these commitments as are at the next Article 29 Committee meeting, but we imagine that this will not be enough", said Jonathan Todd. This committee, which represents the national authorities in charge of applying European directive EC/95/46 p, data protection, will meet on 12 and 13 June. Mr Todd pointed out that in the absence of adequate guarantees from the American administration on the protection of data collected, the Commission will not present a draft decision to cover the situation legally, as European directive EC/95/46 on data protection requires (EUROPE of 23 May, p.8).