MEPs to be snubbed in new EU-US air data deal

Moves to a new EU-US air data anti-terror agreement will be taken without reference to the European parliament, Brussels admitted on Monday.

The European commission has urged national governments to terminate a deal allowing the transfer of EU air passenger information to US security agencies.

At the same time the EU executive will open negotiations with Washington, a technicality as the substance of the previous agreement will remain the same.

Following a challenge from MEPs, EU judges on May 30 struck down the legal base of a two-year old Brussels-Washington anti-terror deal.

But the European Court did not challenge the content of the existing handovers of Passenger Name Records (PNR) to American law enforcers making a new set-up a technicality and setting a October 1 deadline.

“We need to take swift, robust and legally sound action to ensure we don not have disruption to transatlantic flights after September 30,” said a commission spokesman.

“Under the procedure there is no formal role for the parliament to play.”

The commission will ask EU capitals to start the ball rolling to an inter-governmental agreement on the air data transfers.

Brussels ambassadors to the EU will start a process by July 3 and agreement is expected by councils of European ministers over the summer.

“The content of the current agreement has not been criticised by the court and should therefore continue to offer the same level of safeguards,” said a statement

To protect public security and the economic interests of European air carriers this new agreement should replace the current agreement when it will be terminated on September 30.”

EU-US security cooperation over handover of computerised PNR to US security agencies has been controversial since March 2003.

Information – 34 fields of data – has been delivered straight from European central reservation systems to US law enforcement databases.

Details include the names of all travellers, all contact details, telephone numbers, addresses, emails, payment information, bank numbers and credit card data.

The European parliament rejected in June 2004 Washington and Brussels assurances that the transfers would respect EU privacy law.

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