Brussels, 01/09/2003 (Agence Europe) - The United States is still not providing sufficient guarantees on the protection of data concerning air passengers, a note presented on Wednesday to the Commission by Commissioners Frits Bolkestein and Chris Patten states. Therefore, the Commission is not able to make definite the provisional decision allowing, since 5 March, European airline companies to provide US authorities with personal data on passengers.
Under the current circumstances and on the basis of the commitments taken by the United States, the Commission is not in a position to conclude positive results concerning the level of protection granted by the US authorities which receive data on passengers of airline companies from the EU, the Commissioners write.
The report anticipates the speech by Commissioner Bolkestein before the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms, on 9 September. During a meeting of this committee in July this year, MEPs threatened to take the Commission before the Court of Justice (pursuant to Article 232 of the Treaty) because they felt that its decision was in breach of Community legislation on the protection of personal data.
US Secretary for Internal Security Tom Ridge answered European concerns on 7 August concerning the abolition of sensitive data (religion, etc.) and undertook to negotiate the setting in place of a common information system on passenger information. On the other hand, no progress has been made on two other points: - keeping to the objective of countering terrorism and giving effective right of appeal to passengers in the event of abuse. Also, the note states, no progress has been made concerning the excessive amount of data requested and the length of time such data may be stored.
The report proposes three possible solutions for coming out of the legal mess: 1) persevere with negotiations with Washington. In this case, the Commission's provisional decision remains open to legal challenge; 2) conclude that American guarantees are insufficient and request a decision from the national authorities to stop data transfer; and 3) prepare, with the agreement of the Parliament and Council, a legal framework that would specify in what conditions the data may be transferred. This framework could take the form of a bilateral agreement with the United States.