Brussels, 19/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The ATS (Automated Targeting System) used in the United States complies with the agreement on the transfer of Passenger Name Records (PNRs) signed in October, the European Commissioner for Security, Franco Frattini, said on Tuesday, after calling on the US authorities for clarification.
The Commissioner had recently sent a letter to the US authorities calling on them to provide an explanation and to ensure that the ATS is applied in line with the PNR agreement (EUROPE 9328 and 9281). “There have been no breaches” of the agreement, Frattini said regarding the letter sent on 12 December by the Assistant Secretary for Homeland Security Policy, Stewart Baker. According to the Commissioner, who was speaking to MEPs from the European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Freedoms, the US government has nonetheless admitted that there was “confusion” due to the fact that the agreement and the letters exchanged in October between the United States and the EU had not been published. He added that the US authorities had undertaken to publish all documents in the Federal Register. “This is an answer which is both reassuring and positive”, Frattini said, although the view taken by Dutch MEP Sophie In't Velt (ALDE) was that the content of the letter was “not satisfactory”. “I do not believe that all the rules (set out in the PNR agreement) have been applied”, said Kathalijne Buitenweg (Greens/NGL, Netherlands). Frattini responded to this saying: “One cannot ask the European Commission to control what the US government is doing”. In a letter addressed to the Secretary of State for Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, the ECTAA (European association made up of 80,000 European tour operators and travel agencies) and the GEBTA (European group of 300 agencies specialised in business travel) stated their strong opposition to the ATS used by the US customs and border protection authorities for filtering the data of passengers as they enter and leave the United States. In their view, such use of data is “not in line with” the commitments taken by the United States under the PNR agreement, signed between the EU and the United States. They fear their customers may in fact turn against them and take court action against them for not keeping the professional secret by which they are bound.
In the context of the Swift affair, Commissioner Franco Frattini pointed out that he hoped to launch exploratory discussions with the United States in order to reach a “possible agreement” on methods for processing data concerning banking transactions. “We cannot simply leave it up to the bilateral agreements concluded between the Member States and the United States”, Frattini asserted. “This agreement would allow us to kill two birds with one stone - to fight against terrorism and to have rules that can be applied to the protection of private banking data”, he explained. In order to reach this agreement, he said he hoped a very compact timetable would be implemented: - January: beginning of discussions; - March: the drafting of an agreement begins ; - End June: call for EU Council negotiating brief with view to reaching an agreement under Germany EU Council Presidency. Mr Frattini also pointed out that he was still waiting for Member States to provide clarification on the Swift affair (EUROPE 9322 and 9318). (bc)