Luxembourg, 22/11/2005 (Agence Europe) - Advocate General Philippe Léger has proposed to the European Court of Justice that the decision of the Commission of 14 May 2004 and that of the Council of 17 May 2004 on the transfer, to the American authorities, of personal data referring to European airline passengers (Passenger Name Records or PNR) be cancelled, due to a lack of appropriate legal basis. The decision of the Commission stating that the American bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CPB) offered an adequate level of data protection is null and void, he says. Its legal basis, the European directive 95/46 on the free movement of data of a personal nature, excludes the handling of personal data "with the public security objective of (...) state activities in the field of criminal law". The decision of the Council approving the conclusion of an agreement with the United States on the transfer of PNR data to the CPB is also null and void: the legal basis for this could not be article 95 of the EC Treaty, as it governs only the functioning of the internal market and not objectives such as the fight against terrorism, the Advocate General points out. The Court will take position on the substance in spring 2006.
Graham Watson, president of the ALDE who had called on President Cox to bring the matter before the Court (which Pat Cox did on 26 June 2004), has voiced his satisfaction in a press release. "This is a moral victory for anybody who cares as much about democracy and human rights as they do about security", commented Sophie Int'Veldt (Democracy 66, Netherlands), rapporteur on the similar agreement concluded by the EU with Canada, in the same press release.