Commission wants two systems to track travellers entering the EU

The European Commission will propose in February two new systems for tracking and monitoring people entering the EU.

One system will require airline passengers to register online before flying to Europe while the other system will use biometrics to track people entering and leaving the Union through air, land and sea borders.

A separate system of collecting information involving airline passengers entering the EU, proposed by the Commission last November, was given broad backing by justice and interior ministers at a meeting last week (25 January).

Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice, freedom and security, defended the increased surveillance of travellers to the EU. "We should have different systems because there is different data collected and for different purposes," he said following the meeting in Brdo, Slovenia.

The entry-exit system for collecting biometric information will target illegal immigration and people who enter the EU legally but overstay their visas. The online registration to be submitted days before a flight, known as electronic travel authorisation, and the collection and transmission of separate information on airline passengers, known as passenger name records, will be designed to increase security and target terrorists.

The EU plans mirror developments in the US where passenger name records have been collected from European passengers since 2002.

The US also intends to introduce an electronic travel authorisation for citizens of countries which do not need visas to enter America, including 15 EU states.

Michael Chertoff, the US secretary of homeland security, recently raised concerns about "the possibility of Europe becoming a platform for a threat against the US" and referred to the electronic travel authorisation as a way of increasing security while maintaining the visa-waiver programme.

A US official said that while the electronic travel authorisation has a deadline of June 2009, it was expected to come into force for some countries this summer. It could be done on a regional basis or as a way of bringing in individual countries which meet other criteria to join the visa-waiver programme, said the official. This could mean entry onto the visa-free scheme soon for some of the 12 EU states which are outside the visa-waiver programme.

The US also has begun implementing an entry-exit system involving the collection of ten fingerprints at border points. The authorities are examining ways to register those leaving the US.

Aside from proposing new systems for monitoring travellers entering the EU, the Commission in February will also suggest other ways of tightening Europe’s borders. A marine ‘border surveillance system’ will link surveillance carried out by member states and allow the sharing of information on illegal immigration and trafficking by sea. An evaluation of Frontex, the EU’s border agency, will also suggest ways the body can develop ahead of a discussion between ministers in March on the EU’s external borders.

The European Commission will propose in February two new systems for tracking and monitoring people entering the EU.