Strasbourg, 06/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday the European Parliament once again postponed the final vote on the report by French Socialist MEP Martine Roure on privacy protection for personal details of air passengers within the framework of police cooperation. Ms Roure told EUROPE that she had been contacted by the Finnish Presidency which wanted more time to be able to “assess my report more fully, discuss and give its opinion on the amendments”, and she said, “This is something I accepted”. She pointed out that all the amendments had been adopted unanimously in plenary session in June, but the Parliament had postponed the vote on the legislative resolution while awaiting the Council's formal commitment to the rapid adoption of the framework decision, hoping it would do all in its power “to involve the Parliament in the discussions”. The Finnish Presidency having asked to be able to deal with this issue as part of the debate on the future of the freedom, security and justice area, Ms Roure requested that the vote be put off until the September plenary session. According to MEPs, the urgent need for European legislation in this area is related to the Court of Justice's annulment of the EU-United States agreement on the transfer of air passengers' data. The EP seems inclined to wait for the Finnish Presidency, which is thought to be closer to the MEPs' position on this matter. On Thursday, Parliament will vote on the recommendation to the Council through which it calls to be involved in the talks on a new agreement on sharing air passenger data between the EU and the United States (see EUROPE 9256). Ahead of the debate, Baroness Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) railed against the weakness of the EU in the face of pressure from the United States which wants to downgrade privacy protection for air passengers' personal details. Taking this as her starting point, she regrets that the EP is not involved in the talks taking place. She concludes, “Commissioner Frattini must tell us more about his plans for an EU PNR (transfer of personal names records) and 'positive profiling' policy … The European Parliament has already rejected such an the past”.