EU-US air data deal in the dock

Controversial EU air passenger data handovers to US security agencies are to be challenged in the courts by the European Parliament.

The legal battle will cast a shadow over this weekend's EU-US summit set to hail a new Trans-Atlantic accord on terrorism - including the exchange of data.

MEPs have repeatedly rejected Washington assurances that transfers of computerised information - including email addresses, phone numbers and credit card details – will respect EU privacy law.

US ‘homeland security’ chief Tom Ridge and EU ambassador Günter Burghardt put their signatures to an agreement on May 28 despite parliament's claim that MEPs had not been properly consulted and that the deal was in breach of European law.

Parliament chief Pat Cox has now confirmed that he will ask the European Court of Justice to annul” the agreement and to appeal against a Brussels ruling that the air data exchanges were ‘adequate’ with EU law.

“This decision was taken after widescale consultation and reflects the concern felt by a large majority in the European Parliament on the need to defend European citizens' fundamental rights and freedoms,” he said.

Cox is concerned that the measure, unilaterally imposed on the EU by the US after September 11 2001 terror attacks on New York and Washington, may damage sovereignty.

“While naturally accepting that the US administration is perfectly free to exercise its sovereign right to protect its own homeland, both the EU and the US must guard against a new form of creeping extra-territorialit,” he said.

Brussels snubbed MEPs on May 17 overriding data protection concerns to give the OK to handovers of EU air passenger data to US security agencies.

The commission ruled the transfers of computerised booking information 'adequate' under EU privacy law.

And Europe's foreign ministers then rubberstamped, later that day, the agreement to give legal cover for exchanges that have been in place for over a year.

MEPs have decided to reject US safeguards alongside the decision of national governments and Brussels to sideline parliament.

The legal action will challenge both the commission and the EU council of ministers – representing national governments.

Argument will focus on whether Brussels breached EU law in clearing the air data handovers as ‘adequate’ within privacy rules.

A two-pronged attack is expected to challenge the deal’s backing by national capitals both on grounds of EU law and of procedure, claiming that parliament was not properly consulted.

But according to some MEPs the parliament's lawyers are less than enthusiastic about the prospect of a court battle.

A 25-minute intervention from Cox's legal service at a meeting of the parliament's legal affairs committee on June 16 focused on concerns over the juridical basis for a case.

The hesitance lead Italian MEP Marco Cappato to accuse the lawyers of acting “more on political grounds than legal grounds”.

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