Brussels, 28/03/2007 (Agence Europe) - Political leaders, experts and representatives of NGOs have once again given strong warning of the danger of uncontrolled transfer of European citizens' personal data to US authorities as part of the war on terrorism. Hitherto, neither the US nor the EU has provided figures to prove the usefulness of handling billions of pieces of personal data on European citizens and others, MEPs pointed out. “You cannot break data protection rights except when the measure is proven to be necessary, proportionate and appropriate,” said the EP civil liberties committee chairman, Stavros Lambrinidis (PES, Greece), on 26 March. Mr Lambrinidis was chairing a public hearing devoted to the legal issues around the transfer of data as part of the PNR (Passenger Name Records) scenario, the Swift affair and the “Safe Harbour” case. Francesca Bignami of Duke University in the United States, said there was indeed a risk that the PNR data would be inadequately protected in the US because “the US Privacy Act does not work”. She said it was even “ineffective”, because of the many derogations for public security reasons. Personal data intercepted by US authorities can always be shared for police cooperation ends. According to Marc Rotenberg, head of the Electronic Privacy Information Centre in Washington, “The risks to privacy are no longer theoretical,” since those who do not have US citizenship or permanent resident status are not covered by the privacy law. Thus, personal information can be gathered even for reasons not linked to terrorism, he said. In 2006, around 140 million PNR transactions were carried out by US authorities with Europe's six largest airline companies. Following this meeting, a debate with Council and Commission representatives will be held at the next meeting of the LIBE committee on 10-11 April, before a parliamentary delegation travels to Washington on 16-18 April to meet US Congress representatives. (bc)