| Author (Person) | Carstens, Karen |
|---|---|
| Series Title | European Voice |
| Series Details | Vol.9, No.43, 18.12.03, p2 |
| Publication Date | 18/12/2003 |
| Content Type | News |
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By Karen Carstens Date: 18/12/03 AFTER a year of legal wrangling, the EU and the US have reached agreement on sharing data on all airline passengers crossing the Atlantic. Frits Bolkestein, the internal market commissioner, defended the deal before a committee of MEPs that has been investigating breaches of EU privacy rights. It means that personal details given via airline reservation systems and at check-in - including addresses, birth dates, credit card numbers, how many people are travelling together and how many bags they are carrying - will be sent to the US as soon as passengers leave Europe. Transfers of such passenger name record (PNR) data have already been in place since March, but are in breach of EU law. But Bolkestein said the US had taken EU concerns sufficiently into account for the Commission to approve the deal. "It has taken protracted discussions at both official and political level," he said. "In the end, the United States made a number of important concessions." As part of the compromise, the US is allowed to keep data for three and a half years, but new restrictions limit the scope of agencies allowed to access it. A US law, passed after the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, already obliges domestic airlines to pass on PNR data. Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner António Vitorino has revealed that new EU-wide proposals on data protection and the fight against terrorism will be put forward by mid-2004. In October, the European Parliament passed a resolution calling on the Commission to ensure that transfers of data met EU standards, and many MEPs remain unconvinced about the legality of the EU-US deal. Johanna Boogerd-Quaak, vice-chairman of the civil liberties committee, said the EU still found itself "in an illegal situation". She said the European Court of Justice, "the only institution that can determine objectivity", should examine the deal. The European Union reached agreement with the United States Government in December 2003 on sharing data on all airline passengers travelling to the United States. |
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| Subject Categories | Internal Markets, Justice and Home Affairs, Mobility and Transport |
| Countries / Regions | United States |
