EU to sign new deal with US on passenger data
IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency
Brussels, June 19, IRNA
EU-US-Passenger Data
The European Commission said Monday that the European Union will reopen new negotiations with the US on transfer of airline passenger data records to American authorities.
EU spokesman for security and justice affairs, Friso Roscam Abbing, told reporters that the Commission, the EU's executive, will ask the EU Council -- which represents EU governments -- to terminate the present agreement and approve a mandate to negotiate a new deal by October 1 when the agreement with the US expires.
The European Court of Justice based in Luxembourg ruled last month that the Passenger Name Records (PNR) agreement reached between the EU and US in May 2004 was illegal.
EU airlines are obliged to give US authorities 34 items of information about passengers flying to the US. The details include names, addresses, forms of payment and telephone numbers.
The court ruling followed opposition by the European Parliament which argued that the deal violated privacy rights.
But this time the EU has excluded the EP, the EU's only elected institution, from having any say in the measure.
The Commission will re-base the agreement on EU laws related with security and the fight against crime.
"There is no formal role of the (European) Parliament," in the new measures, noted Abbing.
The European court had ruled that the EU decision to sign the agreement had lacked an adequate legal basis.
The spokesman said there are no grounds to change the contents of the present agreement with the US.
The EU announcement comes only two days before the EU-US summit in Vienna on Wednesday.
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