28/01/2004 (Agence Europe) - Italian Radical Marco Cappato again stresses in a press release the extent and ambitions of the future air passenger surveillance system that the United States has been setting in place since September 11. In his letter to Secretary of State Tom Ridge, European Commissioner Frits Bolkestein expresses the Commission's willingness to do everything it can so that the CAPPS II system (computerised system for advanced passebnger control) may be operational from 1 April. He deplores the fact, however, that the system will include data on European citizens. Such a generalised surveillance system cannot be considered compatible with the principle of proportionality imposed by the European legislation and the jurisprudence of European courts, the MEP insists, noting that this will precisely penalise European citizens whose data has been transferred over recent months to the US Administration without their full and informed prior consent. The companies JetBue and Northwest have forwarded thousands of data elements to also test the CAPPS II system, the member elected on Lista Bonino protested (see EUROPE of 10 January, p.8, in particular).