Brussels, 01/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - American and European officials are to meet in Brussels next week to seek to establish a new agreement before the 30 September deadline set by the EU Court of Justice. In 2004, the countries of the EU had sealed a data sharing agreement with the United States whereby the Union pledged to provide information on air passengers to US authorities. The agreement, however, was annulled by the Court of Justice of the EU, as it considered that it did not have an appropriate legal base. Negotiations on this are to resume. US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff has pointed out that Washington hopes to gather more information on air passengers in order to thwart terrorists. “One way (to counter terrorism) is by using more of the detailed information collected by airlines and travel agencies when an individual books a flight. These passenger name records (PNR) contain information, such as travel itineraries and payment details, that can be analysed in conjunction with current intelligence to identify high-risk travellers before they board planes”, Mr Chertoff said on 29 August in The Washington Post. He said this kind of information is required of passengers on international flights to the United States but that, because of privacy concerns, Europe refuses for now to share its information with agencies such as the FBI or with other governments. The 2004 agreement states that no other foreign, federal, state or local agency has direct electronic access to the PNR data via data held by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) bureau. For now, the EU authorises the transfer of 34 types of passenger name records for air travellers giving information on: name, address, email, seat, payment method, telephone contacts, itinerary, travel agency and agent, traveller status, general remarks, insurance, number of luggage items, and various information on the journey, etc. The EU had refused to allow information on racial or ethnic origin, political opinion, religious or philosophical conviction, trade union membership, state of health or sexual leaning to be used by the CBP.
Friso Roscam Abbing, Spokesman for the Internal Affairs Commissioner, said that the EU25 wish only to bring a few technical changes to the agreement cancelled by the Court and that the possible sharing of additional data would not be discussed until next year. “The only thing we wish to change is the legal base, and not the substance of the agreement”, he said. It was originally planned, however, that the current agreement should expire in October 2007 and that new discussions should open early next year. During this new phase and “on the basis of experience gained, it is obvious that there may be changes to the substance of the agreement”, the spokesman said, stressing the need to “inform citizens if new measures are included”.
Up to 105,000 passengers may be prevented from flying to the United States each week if the United States and the EU fail to harmonise their standards on passengers' personal data by 30 September, the Director General for the International Air Transport Association (IATA), Giovanni Bisignani, warned during a press meeting in Tokyo. “The United States and Europe must act rapidly to prevent a major crisis above the Atlantic in coming weeks”, he warned. “Airline companies should not have to choose what national laws they will be transgressing”, Mr Bisignani complained, saying that some airlines may purely and simply cancel all their flights between Europe and the United States in order to avoid being exposed to sanctions on both sides of the Atlantic. The Commission stated on 1 September that, if no agreement is reached by the end of the month, the law applying to PNR data transfer between the EU and the United States would be the national law of each Member State, within the limits set by the data retention directive. It should be noted that the EU Council has also said it hopes renegotiation will take place with Canada and Australia, with which the EU has also signed agreements on air passenger indexing.
On 7 September, MEPs will vote on a draft recommendation addressed to the Council whereby they request to take part in the negotiation of a new agreement and to set sufficient guarantees in place to ensure appropriate protection for that data. Drafted by Sophia In't Veld (ALDE, NL), the recommendation above all provides for a first agreement to be found essentially aimed at ensuring continued transatlantic air traffic until 30 November 2007, followed by a second agreement that is “more coherent” legally. As far as the content of the medium term agreement is concerned, MEPs may recommend resorting to the bridging clause to move from the third to the first pillar of the Treaty so that the Parliament acquires power of codecision.