Legal challenge to passenger data deal unlikely to be pursued

By David Cronin

Date: 20/055/04

LAWYERS at the European Parliament have advised that a legal challenge to the controversial EU-US deal on transferring airline passenger details is no longer tenable after the Union's other main institutions decided to carry on regardless with finalizing the accord.

The approval of the PNR (passenger name record) agreement by foreign ministers on Monday (17 May) throws a move by MEPs to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ) into disarray.

Officials at the assembly say that its legal service has stated that in order to challenge the deal, a fresh procedure would have to be initiated with the court. Green MEPs have called for an emergency meeting of the assembly's legal affairs committee to trigger the necessary new steps.

Yet such a meeting would be at the discretion of the committee's chairman - Giuseppe Gargani from centre-right Forza Italia, who has not responded to the calls.

In a letter to Pat Cox, the Parliament's outgoing president, Dutch Liberal Johanna Boogerd-Quaak, who drafted Parliament's report on PNR, cast doubts on whether the legal challenge can be salvaged. While the EC treaty stipulates that such a case would have to be referred to the ECJ within two months of the decision being adopted by EU governments, she said this could be difficult to do before the 17 July deadline. The new Parliament due to take up its duties after the 10-13 June election may not have enough time to act.

Hailed as an important anti-terrorism measure by Washington, the PNR deal has been heavily criticized by MEPs on grounds the scope of data which would be covered by it is too wide and that the safeguards designed to prevent misuse of personal details are not sufficiently watertight. Pat Cox told this paper he was "disappointed the other institutions didn't act with loyalty towards Parliament" by bypassing its will on the issue.