Strasbourg, 14/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - MEPs on the European Parliament Civil Liberties Committee, with Commissioner Franco Frattini present at the meeting, have indicated that they wish their role in relation to the new agreement which the Commission is hoping to conclude with the United States on the transfer of data on air passengers (see above) to be more than consultative. As he had previously announced (see EUROPE 9202), Mr Frattini told the Parliamentary committee on Monday that the best solution would be to conclude a new agreement, with the same content as the 2004 agreement, annulled by the Court of Justice of the Communities, but using a different legal basis under the “third pillar”. “Not having a new agreement by 30 September would have negative consequences,” he said (see related article). If no solution were found at EU level, he thought bilateral agreements would have to be negotiated with the United States, which could lead to “legal uncertainty”. The Chairman of the Civil Liberties Committee Jean-Marie Cavada (ALDE, France) stressed that any new decision would affect EU citizens and “must be subjected to thorough inter-institutional dialogue”. “Our fears are being realised,” said Martine Roure (PES, France), noting that “Parliament will only have a consultative role” on the issue. She said the change of legal basis would not provide any more protection for air passengers' data than before, given that “the agreement continues to violate the fundamental rights of European citizens”. “At the moment, there is no coordination among the 25 to protect the data used as part of police and judicial cooperation,” she lamented. Similar agreements to the one concluded with the United States exist with Canada and Australia, but MEPs considered that the authorities in these two countries provided appropriate protection to the transferred data. Some MEPs, like Kathalijne Buitenweg (Green, Netherlands) rejected the idea of having a new agreement with the same content. She said what was needed was a system which allowed each airline to transfer only legitimate data, and only in respect of flights to US destinations. Alexander Alvaro (ALDE, Germany) called for a proper consultation procedure, stressing that it was “better to revise once and do it well”. Stefano Zappalà (EPP-ED, Italy) and Hubert Pirker (EPP-ED, Austria), on the other hand, supported the Commissioner, saying a solution to the problem needed to be found before 30 September.