By Bruno Waterfield - 16th October 2005
EU-US security cooperation and the European Commission face a major challenge in the European Court of Justice on Tuesday.
The European Parliament is contesting the handover of computerised Passenger Name Records (PNR) to US security agencies.
A full judgement of the European Court of Justice is expected in 2006 following Tuesday's hearing.
Information – 34 fields of data – has been delivered straight from European central reservation systems to US law enforcement databases since March 2003.
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 last June rejected Washington and Brussels assurances that the transfers would respect EU privacy law.
The commission snubbed MEPs on May 17 2004 by overriding data protection concerns to give the OK to handovers of EU air passenger data to US security agencies.
If a court judgment goes against EU security chief Franco Frattini he will have to annul the agreement reversing the decision that PNR transfers are ‘adequate’ with EU law.
Such a development would spark a major Trans-Atlantic security row and call into question the EU’s anti-terror strategy.
The experience has already changed the way the commission operates, with Brussels justice departments taking over the data protection remit from internal market officials.
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