Brussels, 11/02/2008 (Agence Europe) - The United States administration recently informed the various EU capitals that it wanted to strengthen still further the security measures at its borders requiring, for example, a wider range of information on air passengers and the presence of air marshals on flights from Europe. Member states will study these requests, although already they are causing some contention.
The Guardian reported on Monday 11 February that Washington had sent a document to member states asking them, for example, to provide information on persons flying over the United States, even when there was to be no landing on US soil. The US authorities also called for information on non-travellers, for example, members of the family authorised to go through security barriers to assist aged relatives, children or ill people travelling to the US. In all, seven precise requests feature in the 10-page memorandum of understanding proposed by the US. Provision of information of this sort goes far beyond the measures contained in the EU-US agreement on PNR (Passenger Name Records), signed in June 2007. The new security measures all seek to strengthen the US fight against terrorism. The problem, however, is that the US is making the application of such measures a precondition for the extension of the Visa Waiver Program (VWP), which exempts travellers from visa requirements and from which 12 EU countries are currently excluded (see EUROPE 9598).
Member states' ambassadors will this week discuss the raft of conditions proposed by their American counterparts. “This will pose political and technical problems because several of their demands concern the Community,” said a diplomatic source. For example, the EU is currently drawing up a regulation on civil aviation security (see EUROPE 9569), which could come into conflict with the US proposals. In some cases, member states have no room for manoeuvre, and what falls within the responsibility of the Union and what does not will have to be determined, the diplomat pointed out. “What is annoying is that they (the US) made their demands directly to member states”, he went on. Germany, which is already in the VWP, is currently among the countries which have rejected the US demands. Others, like the Czech Republic and Greece, are under pressure and want to join the visa exemption programme quickly. The European Commission, which has also received the memorandum of understanding, has not carried out any in-depth analysis at his point. One of its spokesmen, Friso Roscam Abbing, would only note that visa policy was a Community policy and that the Commission was doing all it could to help countries join the VWP. (B.C.)