Economisch en Sociaal Comité: lichaamsscanners luchthavens nog niet verplicht stellen (en)

In its opinion on the use of body scanners at EU airports, which was adopted yesterday at the plenary session, the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) laid bare its concerns about the possible infringements of human rights and potential health risks resulting from the new technology. It has also said that body scanners are not yet sufficiently fit for purpose and more consideration needs to be given to the alternatives.

"The European Commission is focused too much on technology and erroneously downplays the importance of enhanced intelligence sharing and human factor analysis", said Bernardo Hernández Bataller (Spain, Various Interests' Group), rapporteur of the opinion.

The European Economic and Social Committee set out its concerns about the scanners' ability to improve security, which, coupled with the considerable cost of the scanners, remains the key issue. As an alternative to be considered, the EESC suggested using available technologies to identify broad sources of threat, which would then be investigated by means of "pat-down" searches. Given the fast-developing technology, the EESC favoured making the most of existing tools and opted to wait for other technology that is better equipped for purpose and less intrusive than body scanners in their current form.

The EESC fear that body scanners are an invasion of privacy and can infringe fundamental rights if images are unduly stored printed or disseminated. To prove the point, the Committee recalls a case at a Florida court where 35,000 images from body scanners were retained by security agents and posted on the Internet.

The Committee objected to restraining fundamental rights as a trade-off for public security. It backed the idea of passengers being allowed to opt out of body scanner checks without having to suffer additional burdens such as delays or long queues for exhaustive searches. It called on the Commission to create the effective legal remedies so that passengers would not fear of opting out of these checks.

EU advisory body also reminded that there was no "conclusive proof" that the radiation emitted by the scanners posed no risk to human health. As long as these doubts have not been dispelled, the use of body scanners is not advisable, said the EESC. It also urged the European Commission to lay down specific rules for the vulnerable passengers, such as pregnant women, children or the disabled.

The EESC criticized the Commission's move to replace the term "security scanners" with "body scanners" in order to make them more "politically attractive". It also berated the European executive for trying to push through new rules without sufficiently open and broad political debate, instead opting for obscure discussions among experts.