EU-US intelligence spat over air passenger data

The EU’s demands for access to intelligence information gleaned from airline passenger data passed to the US has put it on a collision course with the American authorities.

Negotiations began this week (26 February) between the two sides on a deal to allow the transfer of information on airline passengers travelling from Europe to the US, but with a new mandate from EU member states requesting the intelligence data.

The mandate states that the deal, which is supposed to help combat terrorism and serious crime, "should ensure the possibility of transfer of analytical information flowing from PNR [passenger name records] data by competent US authorities to police and judicial authorities of the member states, as well as to Europol and Eurojust".

But a White House adviser this week warned that action taken in Europe, including charges against CIA agents in Germany and Italy, and inquiries into the transport of terrorist suspects through European airports, had "strained" co-operation on intelligence sharing.

"For US officials or any European intelligence or law enforcement officials to see what is happening with their colleagues with numerous investigations that have been conducted, their colleagues being hauled before magistrates and being asked about every aspect of their co-operation with the United States - ‘what did you say, to whom?’ - that’s sure to make individuals much more cautious in any kind of co-operation that they might have," said John Bellinger, legal adviser to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

In some cases EU member states’ requests for US intelligence had been turned down because of these difficulties, Bellinger said during a visit to Brussels. "This is, I think, straining that co-operation and there have been in fact individual instances where co-operation has been complicated because of these investigations," he said.

The US authorities were unlikely to trust EU states with intelligence from airline passenger data and feared it could even be used against them to show up questionable practices, said Philip Davies, deputy director at Brunel University’s Centre for Intelligence and Security Studies. "The US doesn’t trust the security systems of Europe…they don’t completely trust the Europeans not to put the knife in," he said.

Gus Hosein of Privacy International said: "The Americans would fear the disclosure of intelligence. They prefer to do this [intelligence-sharing] on a bilateral basis and very informally. Here it seems the EU wants to make it formal."

The data is used for "movements analysis" which allows law enforcement bodies to track the whereabouts of terrorist suspects by matching their names, or their pseudonyms, with people travelling into the US.

MEPs back member states’ mandate to seek this information from the US. "Data-sharing is good…but there have to be clear rules and there aren’t clear rules at present," said Sophie in ’t Veld, a Dutch Liberal MEP and author of the Parliament’s report on PNR.

The expected wrangling over the request for the intelligence data is one of a number of issues likely to make negotiations on a new PNR deal difficult. Franco Frattini, European commissioner for justice, freedom and security, said that he wanted to see a reduction in the number of pieces of data - from 34 to 19 - sent to the US. But the US is looking for more information, to be sent over earlier than it is currently sent, with permission to hold it for longer. The deadline for achieving a deal is the end of July.

The EU’s demands for access to intelligence information gleaned from airline passenger data passed to the US has put it on a collision course with the American authorities.