Brussels, 01/06/2004 (Agence Europe) - The EU and United States signed an agreement on recording passenger data on transatlantic flights last week. The agreement, which enters into force immediately, allows US customs and security authorities to extract data from European airline companies' passenger information. In May, the Commission adopted a decision to ensure that commitments undertaken by the United States to limit the amount and the storage of extracted data was 'adequate' with regard to the European directive on personal data protection (see EUROPE of 18 May, p.10).
The Parliament opposed the agreement, which it deemed insufficient, and called on the Council and the Commission to wait for a Court of Justice opinion before approving it. The entry into force of the agreement overrides the request for opinion from the Parliament to the Court.
Adding to the vociferous reaction of certain green and liberal MEPs, Marco Cappato (Italy) wrote to EP President Pat Cox, pressing him to react. The Commission and Council "have clearly taken advantage of the Parliament's suspension of activities ahead of the elections, and spurned institutional loyalty" he wrote. Mr Cappato is asking the EP President to either directly take a decision to immediately initiate Court proceedings against the Commission decision, or to request an extraordinary meeting of the EP legal committee to this effect. This procedure had also been called for by Daniel Cohn-Bendit (Green/EFA). According to Marco Cappato, a failure to react by President Cox will "seriously damage the credibility of the institution".