Luxembourg, 05/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, the EU hopes to finalise an agreement with the United States on the transfer of Passenger Name Records, said Franco Frattini, Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security. “I won't go so far as to say that I am optimistic (…) but we should be able to come to an agreement”, Mr Frattini said at the meeting of the Justice and Home Affairs Council in Luxembourg on 5 October. Speaking to the press, the Commissioner was quite clear in saying that, at any rate, the ministers “will reach a final decision” on Friday morning.
Since 1 October this year, there has been no international agreement between the EU and the US to prevent US counter-terrorism services from gaining access to data concerning passengers on flights to the United States. Nonetheless, the agreement that had been cancelled by the European Court of Justice will continue to apply in practice until negotiations on a new agreement have failed. Aware of the dangers that this could entail, Europeans began a last negotiating round by video-conference from Luxembourg late afternoon Thursday. A meeting at the level of the 25 ambassadors for the EU is expected to follow at the end of the evening with the prospect of adopting an agreement on Friday between ministers. “Negotiations will be tough. We must be sure that our level of data protection is maintained”, a European source said. The ambassadors gave their go-ahead this week for the Presidency and the Commission to continue talks with the United States on the basis of an enlarged mandate in order to increase the chances of breaking the deadlock. The current Presidency's mandate is expected to operate “on a case-by-case basis”, the same source said. While, initially, the EU was simply to negotiate the legal base of the agreement concluded in 2004, the United States hoped to renegotiate on the substance of the text, mainly on the possibility for American agencies - such as the FBI - to have automatic access to data received by the Customs and Border Protection Bureau of the United States. The Americans consider that information-sharing between the various federal agencies is essential in counter-terrorism policy. This matter concerns passengers' personal data (in total 34 points: telephone number, credit card, email address, etc.) that airline companies pass on to US customs 15 minutes after take-off for all flights to the United States. On 30 May this year, the European Court of Justice had ruled that the 2004 agreement authorising this practice was illegal and had given the EU and the United States until 30 September to find a new agreement, failing which any airline passing on passenger records to the United States would be liable to legal proceedings in the EU. (bc)