Pressure looms over controversial EU-US air data deal
LUCIA KUBOSOVA
08.09.2006 @ 09:58 CET
As a 30 September deadline to replace the existing EU-US deal on sharing air passenger data is fast approaching, the European Parliament has called for fresh safeguards from Washington to protect citizens' privacy.
After a heated debate in a Strasbourg plenary on Thursday (7 September), MEPs backed the move by the European Commission to negotiate an interim transatlantic deal with the US after the European Court of Justice ruled the current accord illegal in May.
However, they stressed that the new deal should not include some of the deficiencies of the earlier agreement, such as allowing Washington full access to a database of passengers coming from Europe instead of only specifically required data on a case by case basis.
EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini however spoke out against any changes in the content of the agreement, arguing that his key aim is to finalise the talks - set to start today - by the end of September deadline set by the Luxembourg court.
The commissioner promised he would inform the parliament about the details of proceedings of the negotiations - to be conducted by the EU executive and member states.
But MEPs have called for their own chair around the table, as well as for any interim deal only to be valid until November 2007.
The parliamentarians were among the main critics of the passenger sharing accord adopted in 2004, on which the US insisted was part of its fight against terrorism.
Under the agreement, US officials get access to 34 types of data on passengers flying from all 25 EU member states, such as names, addresses, phone numbers, flight routes and credit card numbers.