BRUSSELS: The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has ruled that a controversial deal agreed by the EU and US in May 2004 to share information on air passengers is illegal, writes Jamie Smyth
The judgment by Europe's highest court yesterday effectively annuls the agreement, which obliges all European airlines to provide data on all passengers flying to the US.
The ECJ ruled that the agreement was "not founded on an appropriate legal base", but gave the EU 90 days grace to act to ensure it complied with EU law on the matter. It said it delayed the termination date of the passenger data deal until September 30th, "for reasons of legal certainty and in order to protect the persons concerned".
There have been fears that an adverse ruling could cause travel chaos for air travellers. The US has threatened to impose fines and deny landing rights to airlines that do not comply with the passenger data deal as part of its ongoing fight against terrorism.
The EU and US said yesterday they would agree a new deal to preserve the content of the existing air passenger agreement.
This will require the EU to change the legal basis that it uses to draw up the agreement, as the ECJ ruled that transferring passenger data falls within the field of public security rather than internal market, the legal base that the European Commission and member states used in May 2004.
EU justice commissioner Franco Frattini said he hoped to get an agreement on a new proposal before the summer break. "I do not intend to negotiate a new content," said Mr Frattini, who warned that failure to find an agreement on air passenger data could pose huge problems.
Under the current agreement, European airlines have been obliged to give US authorities 34 items of information on passengers flying to the US, including name, address, all forms of payment and contact telephone numbers. This data must be supplied within 15 minutes of an aircraft taking off.
The European Parliament challenged the agreement at the ECJ on the basis that it was not agreed under the correct legal basis and that it infringed the fundamental rights of passengers.
The court ruled that the EU Council of Ministers' decision to sign the agreement lacked an adequate legal basis. "Consequently, the court annulled the council decision approving the conclusion of the agreement and did not consider it necessary to consider the other pleas relied on by parliament," a court statement said.