Commissie verdedigt verstrekken passagiersgegevens aan VS (en)

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - The European Commission refused on Monday to withdraw a controversial agreement with the US on the transfer of passenger data to the US authorities, as MEPs threatened to seek the EU's top court ruling on the matter.

The European Parliament had given the Commission until Monday to withdrawa the EU-US passenger data transfer agreement threatening otherwise to vote today on whether to refer the matter to the European Court of Justice.

In a flurry of last minute activity, Parliament chief Pat Cox decided to postpone the vote until Wednesday (21 April) to allow MEPs to discuss their concerns with how the data will be used with external relations commissioner Chris Patten.

Most of the political groups in the European Parliament feel that the transfer to US security agencies of data such as name, address, phone number and credit card numbers, are incompatible with EU data protection law and are seeking a ruling from the EU's top court on the matter.

However Internal Market Commissioner Bolkestein told MEPs on Monday that the agreement is necessary.

"The Commission does not consider that the international agreement [with the United States] amends the data protection directive", Mr Bolkestein told MEPs. "The international agreement is necessary", he added.

The Irish EU Presidency has also urged MEPs to approve the agreement between the Brussels executive and Washington.

Irish Europe Minister Dick Roche said "I am satisfied that this draft agreement is a fair balance between rightful concerns to protect personal privacy and the need to increase security in the air for all passengers across the Atlantic".

The EU-US deal would allow the US to retrieve 34 categories of data and store it for three and a half years.

MEPs want the US to have access to only 19 categories and to restrict the time period for the storage of data.

After the September 11 attacks, the US has demanded access to airlines' booking records to help it fight terrorist threats.

Since March 2003, airlines have faced the possibility of fines of 6,000 euro per passenger or potential loss of landing rights in the US if they failed to provide passenger data within 15 minutes of a flight's departure.

Carriers such as British Airways, Lufthansa and Air France have already started sharing data with the US.

"The majority of members of this house felt that there has been a serious violation of individual rights", Italian socialist MEP Elena Paciotti told the plenary.

"This whole argument has been going on for one year. The only way to sort this out is to find whether or not the rights enshrined in the treaty have been violated".