Strasbourg, 07/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted a recommendation clearly establishing the line to be taken in talks to strike agreement between the EU and the United States over the highly controversial sharing of personal information about airline passengers. The deadline for reaching a new agreement is 1 October this year, so the MEPs called for a two-stage negotiating strategy. Firstly, they say the EU should agree to a new short-term international agreement to ensure the continuation of transatlantic air travel until 30 November 2007, with MEPs attending the talks as observers. They want to ensure the United States provides suitable protection for EU air passengers and for adequate safeguard clauses to be established. This means that the problems identified in the current agreement need to be rectified and a PUSH system adopted, whereby the US authorities would have to request the information they need on a case-by-case basis rather than having free access to the entire database, and for there to be a reduction in the number of fields of personal information eligible for checking by the US. In the longer term, MEPs want the Council to grant the EP codecision rights on matters of this type when the agreement is reviewed in 2007, using the bridging clause (moving from the second to the third pillar) to ensure future agreements respect data protection clauses. The MEPs suggest launching dialogue this year with national parliamentary of the EU, the United States, Canada and Australia to prepare for the 2007 review.
During the debate, Commissioner Franco Frattini said that it was certainly not for the EU to tamper with the fundamental measures of the agreement annulled by the Court of Justice, but rather to deal with the legal basis. Stressing the importance of being able to ensure the juridical security of citizens, he said the Commission was doing its best to ensure that the talks, due to start on Friday, would be concluded as soon as possible to avoid any major legal problems. He said the European Parliament would be kept regularly informed of progress in the negotiations and Frattini would himself be briefing the EP's Civil Liberties Committee on 12 September. Frattini said the bridging clause would be discussed at the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Tampere on 21 and 22 September. Rapporteur Sophia In't Veld (ADLE, the Netherlands) was delighted that despite all the rumours that the US was in no hurry to sign an agreement with the EU and would rather have bilateral agreements with countries individually, that the Commission and Council had decided to work with the EP to avoid a 'catastrophe'. She relayed the concerns of huge number of MEPs that the EU should speak with one voice on this issue. Carlos Coelho (EPP-ED, Portugal) said he supported the aim of fighting terrorism and wanted to cooperate with the US and avoid any legal limbo after 1 October. French Socialist Martine Roure said an agreement was vital because without it, airlines would provide the information they saw fit and there would be no guarantee that personal data would be protected. Sarah Ludford (ALDE, UK) said the United States' aim was to use the personal information (in ways unknown in the EU) to define a database of potential stereotyped terrorists. Giusto Catania (GUE/GNL, Italy) warned that the EU had to reflect on the absurdity of the current agreement, where by thirty-four different fields of information are provided, most of which is not used. Making a realistic comment, Michael Cashman (PES, UK) said an agreement was needed as soon as possible because otherwise the US would do what they want and any opportunity to have an EU data protection policy would be lost. Wolfgang Kreissl-Dorfler (PES, Germany), said the Council's absence from the debate was scandalous. Frattini concluded that if no new agreement came into force, millions of citizens would have to accept a cut in the level of projection granted to their personal information (see EUROPE 9259). Frattini made reassuring noises, noting that some EU airlines were already in the process of introducing a PUSH system with the US. He criticised the European Court of Justice ruling of May 2006 as a 'Community failure', adding that we cannot thank the Court of Justice for the ruling because it had made the EU take a step backwards in terms of the protection of citizens. He did, however, say that he was duty-bound to respect the ruling.