Brussels, 02/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has failed to reach an agreement with the United States on the sharing of data pertaining to airline passengers, the European Commission confirmed on Monday. The American and European negotiators parted in Washington on Saturday without having managed to reach an agreement. "Negotiations on a PNR (Passenger Name Records) agreement between the EU and the United States could not be concluded before 1 October", the cut-off date set on the 30 May by the European Court of Justice, said Friso Roscam-Abbing, the spokesperson to the Commission with responsibility for Justice and Home Affairs. Mr Roscam-Abbing then declined to answer any questions on the reasons for the breakdown in discussions, in order to respect the confidential nature of negotiations for an international agreement. Various European sources have explained that the EU negotiators in Washington were not authorised to validate certain "novelties" brought in by the Americans, and that they must first consult the 25 Member States. "The negotiations will continue and seek to reach an agreement as quickly as possible", the spokesperson continued, adding that the conclusion of this agreement was "in the interest of all": passengers, airlines, law enforcement authorities and the data protection authorities.
A draft agreement for the attention of the European parties tabled by the American Secretary for Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, on 30 September, will be discussed this Tuesday by Coreper and on Wednesday by the College of Commissioners. It may then be debated by the Justice and Home Affairs ministers of the EU in Luxembourg next Friday, "in the hope of reaching an agreement as soon as possible after the Council", announced Mr Roscam-Abbing. Last week, the Commission warned that the absence of an agreement between the EU and the United States "could lead to a kind of legal chaos", particularly as the American authorities have already stated their intentions of banning aeroplanes failing to communicate the requested information from landing on American soil. Nonetheless, Mr Chertoff stated on Saturday that "although we are waiting for the final ratification of the draft agreement, we anticipate that aeroplanes will continue to circulate freely and that national security will not be breached". To date, no major problems have been noted with flights leaving Europe for the United States.
According to Mr Chertoff, "the proposal ensures that the appropriate security information will be exchanged and that the information gathered to fight terrorism will be shared as necessary with agencies engaged in the fight against terrorism", he added. "The United States has the legal and moral obligation to protect its borders, and it is our right to make sure we know who is coming into our country. The Ministry will use everything at its disposal (...) to make our borders safe and to honour the trust which the American people have placed in us", he said. In the absence of an agreement on the transfer of PNR data, the Commission has called on the United States to continue to keep hold of the passenger data contained in the 2004 agreement until a new agreement can be reached, in order to minimise the risk of legal uncertainty and disturbances to transatlantic flights. The American authorities, however, have not yet stated whether they intend to keep the data under the expired agreement. This affair pertains to the personal data of airline passengers (a total of 34: telephone number, credit card, e-mail address, etc) which the airlines must send to the American customs 15 minutes before any flight to the United States takes off, in the name of the fight against terrorism. On 30 May, the European Court of Justice ruled that the 2004 agreement authorising this practice was illegal, and gave the EU and the United States until 30 September to reach a new agreement. After this date, and if such an agreement had not been concluded, any airline sending data on its passengers to the United States would be prone to legal action in the Member States of the EU.