Institutions at loggerheads over airport security

The European Parliament, the European Commission and EU member states remain divided over how the cost of security at airports should be borne with formal conciliation talks due to start on Tuesday (20 November).

The Parliament is adamant that costs should be transparent and that price hikes passed on to passengers because of security should be clearly indicated when buying tickets. Any money earmarked for increasing security should be spent solely on security, said Paolo Costa, an Italian Liberal MEP, who is representing the Parliament in the talks.

"In applying measures, more attention also needs to be paid to fundamental rights. The limit put on liquids on board aircraft touched on passenger behaviour and we need to protect the traveller as a consumer," Costa said.

Governments which decide to apply tougher security measures at airports than those agreed at EU level should pay for these measures. "Passengers shouldn’t pay for governments’ political strategy," Costa said.

But member states say that the Parliament has no right to dictate how money is spent on security at airports. "It’s a matter of subsidiarity, it’s up to each member state. All 27 member states are of this view, no one is deviating," said an EU diplomat.

The issue of transparency also puzzled member states, said the diplomat. "You don’t know how much it costs to police the streets so why should there be detailed information on costs of security at airports?"

The Commission broadly agrees that the existence of different practices across the EU on whether government funds security distorts how industry operates. But it believes the current law being examined is about rules governing security, not how security should be financed.

The US government funds much of the security upgrades at airports and this has prompted European air transport industry to call for at least the same level of public funding for airport security across member states.

Costa says that the Parliament had already compromised in talks, backing down from insisting that costs be shared among government and the air transport industry. "For most of my colleagues we are already at our red lines and can’t go beyond that," he said.

The matter arises in the context of a review of a 2002 law which sets down common rules across the EU on civil aviation security. The Commission drafted the review to allow greater flexibility on security for air transport. Concili-ation talks can proceed for six weeks after which, if no compromise is found, the proposal falls.

The European Parliament, the European Commission and EU member states remain divided over how the cost of security at airports should be borne with formal conciliation talks due to start on Tuesday (20 November).