By Bruno Waterfield - 23rd March 2004
A behind-closed doors meeting of EU diplomats is to fast track a Trans-Atlantic agreement allowing the handover of air traveller data to US security agencies.
National representatives meeting on Wednesday are to use the EU’s “lightest available procedure” to give the controversial deal the all-clear – a move that will deepen a row over privacy rights.
Computerised records have been pulled into American databases for use by US security agencies since March 5 2003.
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.
The data is regarded as “vital” in the war on terror triggered by September 11 2001’s air-hijack attacks on New York and Washington.
But the transfers have angered the European Parliament, with senior MEPs claiming the deal breaches European data protection laws.
A December decision by the European Commission that the data exchanges were “adequate” with EU law is to be voted on in parliament next week.
But the strategy pursued by Brussels means that MEPs will be left without an effective voice.
An internal EU executive document notes that whatever the Strasbourg vote’s outcome the parliament’s “resolution would not be binding on the commission”.
MEPs are also sidelined when the EU comes to sign an international agreement with Washington.
A “light” procedure allowing national governments to seal an accord is on the agenda for ‘COREPER’ officials on March 24.
“The lightest available procedure… would not require the assent of the parliament and [governments] could place a time-limit on its consultation,” commission officials noted in December.
Discussions follow the March 11 terror attacks on Spain and a transformed political agenda as EU anti-terror efforts top a March 25 summit of European leaders.
An unpublished draft declaration set to be signed off by European heads of state and government in Brussels this Thursday singles out the issue of air passenger data as a priority.
“The European Council… emphasises that work on measures in this area needs to be expedited,” notes the draft.
“In particular work will be taken forward on… the proposed… obligation of air carriers to communicate passenger data with view to an early conclusion.”
Spain has proposed, before the Mardrid bombings, a new European directive requiring air and shipping maritime carriers to collect data on all passengers.
The information, currently suggested to be less than requested by the US, would then be transferred to national security agencies in the destination country.
All foreign nationals who fail to leave the EU on the scheduled date of their return flight would then be investigated.
The European Parliament’s justice committee voted on last Thursday that the post-September 11 data transfers to the US be referred to the European Court of Justice.
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