Brussels, 16/10/2003 (Agence Europe) - Commissioner Frits Bolkestein's visit to Washington this week does not seem to have allowed talks to move forward on the indexing of passengers on transatlantic flights. There does, however, seem to have been progress regarding the registration of audit firms in the United States.
Commissioner Frits Bolkestein and US Secretary of the Interior Tom Ridge again undertook to find a solution before the end of the year on personal data. The aim of the Europeans is to ensure that the US administration will use data on transatlantic flight passengers only if conform to the European directive on data of a personal nature and the regulation on access to data kept in computerised reservation systems. Negotiations concern the list of data and the duration of storage for such data, as well as the passengers' right to appeal and to information. Commissioner Bolkestein recalled that the European Parliament adopted a resolution this month calling for a result within two months and threatening the Commission with action before the Court of Justice if it does not apply Community law (see EUROPE of 11 October, p.11).
The meeting between Frits Bolkestein and the president of the US audit control body, the US Accounting Oversight Board, William Mc Donough, made slight progress on the audit. According to the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation, adopted by the United States to avoid other scandals after the Enron and Worldcom affair in particular, the European audit firms should be included as of April 2004 on the American registers and submit to controls. The EU seeks to ensure that confidentiality of documents will be respected and that inspections may be conducted by European authorities, or at least in the form of joint teams. "We are pleased by the progress made in our discussions. We share the same objective which is to protect investors and restore confidence toward financial audits", William McDonough said after the meeting.