EU: The European Parliament has asked the EU's highest court to annul a treaty between the EU and the United States that would allow authorities to share data about airline passengers, writes Denis Staunton in Brussels.
MEPs voted against the agreement earlier this year, citing concerns about privacy and data protection, but the Council of Ministers, where national governments meet, pressed ahead with the treaty regardless.
The agreement will allow US authorities to obtain information such as credit-card details, telephone numbers, addresses and travel itineraries on all transatlantic passengers.
The President of the European Parliament, Mr Pat Cox, said the decision to refer the issue to the European Court of Justice reflected the concern expressed by most MEPs about the need to defend the fundamental rights and freedoms of European citizens.
"While naturally accepting that the US administration is perfectly free to exercise its sovereign right to protect its own homeland, both the EU and the US must guard against a new form of creeping extra-territoriality.
"This issue must be addressed in the context of EU-US dialogue," he said.
The EU and the United States agreed on May 28th to allow US authorities to access airlines' booking records and scan up to 34 pieces of data for each passenger and keep them for 3½ years.
Passenger data considered too sensitive, such as meal orders or special requirements that could reveal someone's religion, race or health, would not be transferred or would be deleted.
EU airlines, faced with the prospect of fines of $6,000 per passenger or even the withdrawal of their US landing rights, have already started to hand over data to Washington.
"We feel at this moment, since September 11th, that we are dealing with people who want to attack our country. Because of that, we are currently in a war-like atmosphere and that is why that information is very important to us," the US ambassador to the EU, Mr Rockwell Schnabel, said.
Although supportive of sharing data to help the global fight against terrorism, EU lawmakers were concerned that the US air security plans did not offer sufficient privacy safeguards to foreign travellers in case of mistakes.
The Liberal Democrat member, Mr Graham Watson, one of the most prominent lawmakers in the campaign against the air data deal, said: "I hope the court will uphold the right of the parliament and thereby the foundation of our democracy."
Earlier this year the parliament had sought the opinion of the court on this matter, but this request fell once the EU-US agreement was signed, leaving parliament with the sole option of direct court action.