By Martin Banks - 9th March 2010
The use of body scanners at European airports has won the provisional backing of commission president José Manuel Barroso.
Addressing deputies in parliament on Tuesday, Barroso said he favoured the idea "as long as member states agree to it".
So far, he said that while some member states, such as the UK and the Netherlands, had introduced the new technology at their airports, others had not done so.
He said this raised some concern because it risked the emergence of a "kind of discrimination" in airport security throughout the EU.
The use of scanners has split parliament with many MEPs concerned about the possible privacy issues involved.
His comments come the day after Mary Ellen Callahan, chief privacy officer at the US homeland security department, spoke about the issue during a visit to Brussels.
She said new technology being developed may allow the introduction of less intrusive "body scanners" at airports by the end of the year.
The new version of the scanner would just provide a "silhouette" image rather than the kind of x-ray image that has worried privacy campaigners, she said.
Callahan is due to hold talks with MEPs during this week's parliamentary plenary in Strasbourg.
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