Trans-Atlantic anti-terror air talks held

The European Commission is hosting a Friday meeting on Trans-Atlantic air security.

Civil aviation officials from across Europe will meet US officials to discuss the controversial American anti-terror measures.

Washington introduced armed guards known as 'sky marshals' on selected flights entering the US after heightened fears of repeat 11 September - style attacks.

But several countries have strong reservations over the presence of guns on board planes and today's exchange of views will highlight different positions across the EU bloc.

While the British government has said that it is not opposed to armed guards on planes as long as passengers are safe, Italy, Portugal and Spain are among a number of countries who take the view that the security of passengers should be guaranteed before boarding and that any guns on planes are unwise.

Speaking earlier in the week in Strasbourg, EU transport chief Loyola de Palacio also expressed her concern over the issue. The Commissioner said placing armed guards on US bound planes constituted an "extreme solution which poses  a certain number of problems".

Today's meeting comes at a time of heightened security measures for the airline industry.

Fears of terrorist attacks led to the cancellation of several Air France flights between Paris and Los Angeles late in December and British Airlines flights between London and Washington were cancelled earlier this month following security alerts.

Washington has also ordered a broad range of data held by airlines on EU travellers visiting the US be handed over to ‘homeland security’ authorities.

Information – 34 fields of data – is 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.

U.S. officials at the meeting are set to explain how the data collection system works.

• Previous article
• Next article