Brussels, 30/10/2007 (Agence Europe) - While the European Commission is preparing to present, on 6 November, new measures to counter terrorism, MEPs from the ALDE group have repeated their call for policies currently being applied by the EU to be examined. “EU counter-terrorism policies must be regularly assessed on their effectiveness,” said Sophie in't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands) in a press release on 25 October. She goes on to say that this must not just look at the correct application of the rules, but, above all, should consider their impact on reducing the threat and increasing security, on improving cooperation and information exchange between countries and agencies, and also evaluate the cumulative impact of individual measures on privacy and civil liberties. The MEP and several of her colleagues have put a number of questions to the Commission on the evaluation of agreements on the use of passenger data - Passenger Name records (PNR) - with the US and Canada. The MEPs are critical that the effectiveness of the EU-US PNR agreement, the last of which came into effect in May 2007, has never been assessed, yet the US has been gathering and using PNR data since May 2004 (see EUROPE 9478). They note that only one single evaluation of how the agreement is being applied has been carried out, and that in March 2006. They, therefore, ask the Commission when the next assessment report will be published, and how and when the joint evaluation will be organised. The MEPs have questions, too, about the EU-Canada PNR agreement which has been in place for two years. Lastly, they ask the Commission to confirm whether countries like South Korea and India intend to collect PNR data from airlines. Among the raft of proposals the Commission will bring forward at the start of November is one on European PNR (see EUROPE 9460). “Before proposing a European PNR system, ALDE believes that it is imperative that it be based on a comprehensive evaluation of the effectiveness of the US and Canada PNR systems,” in't Veld pointed out. (B.C.)