Irish people will have to adhere to new security requirements to enter the US, as part of a new law to reduce the terrorist risk which is currently passing through Congress, writes Jamie Smythin Brussels.
US secretary of homeland security Michael Chertoff told MEPs yesterday the administration was supporting plans to create an electronic traveller security system, which would involve sending personal details to the US authorities via the internet before travelling.
This would give the US more time to check visitors' names against terrorist and criminal watchlists and clear them to enter the country. Ireland is among 15 EU countries whose citizens do not need visas when travelling to the US for business, pleasure or transit.
"It gives us more time to analyse whether we have a problem of people coming in and it minimises the problem we sometimes have when people take a six-hour trip across the Atlantic and they turn up and we have to tell them to go home again," said Mr Chertoff, following an address to the European Parliament's committee on civil liberties yesterday.
Details of the new rules have not been finalised by the US Congress. However, Mr Chertoff said the proposed system was similar to an existing scheme in Australia. Under that system most EU citizens fill in a short online form and pay €17 to obtain an electronic travel authority visa that enables them to enter the country.
The EU is monitoring the US plan. One EU official said that establishing a US electronic traveller authorisation scheme could simply evolve into a new style of visa requirement for EU citizens.
"If it turns out to be a visa by another name, then reciprocal measures could be imposed on US travellers," the official said. The business community is also likely to have concerns about the proposed scheme if it introduces further hassle to transatlantic air travel.
The electronic traveller authorisation scheme is the latest in a series of security measures introduced or planned since the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001.
The US authorities already collect and store passenger name records obtained from airlines on all passengers travelling to the US. They have also forced all visa waiver states to introduce biometric passports or be removed from its visa waiver system.
"I believe we are at war," said Mr Chertoff, who described terrorism as "an ideological threat, a totalitarian vision imposed through violence".