European Commissioner Unveils New Passenger Security Plans
Airport security procedures for passengers could be radically revised, in line with plans unveiled by the European Commission in Brussels yesterday. The emphasis would be on the sharing of key passenger information such as credit card details and passport numbers; the projected move following the string of attempted terrorist attacks in recent days.
Information relating to passengers flying into Europe would potentially be stored on the government databases of the countries concerned, and then transmitted across a shared network. A further development of this would be a similar arrangement for passengers travelling within Europe. This last arrangement would, for example, oblige British authorities to provide their French counterparts with details of those travelling from Britain to France.
The proposal was detailed by the European Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini, who stated that the EU had to discover a "better way to discourage and to detect terrorists" - referring to the recent attacks. He continued: "I suggest that all member states should equip themselves with a PNR [passenger name record] system and share information with others when relevant."
The system would effectively echo that recently forged between the EU and the US, where details relating to all US-bound passengers travelling from Europe must be provided to the Department for Homeland Security prior to the aircraft leaving terra firma. Supplementing the recent News Item which covered this story, it has now become known that the number of individual pieces of information required - initially thought to be 34 - has now decreased to 19. Credit card information still forms an essential part of this requirement.
Mr Frattini urged that this measure should be adopted by all countries within the EU. Regarding this unification, he stated: "The best approach would be for each member state to have a national passenger name records system." He further warned that countries that neglect to implement the scheme "could become the front door for dangerous people."
The proposal, which will be brought into force in the latter half of 2007 as a "framework decision", could be rejected by any one of the 27 states within the EU. However, within the countries that do agree to act on it, huge bank of passenger-related information would soon build up. The impact of this would be considerable as, for example, in excess of 200 million passengers are processed by UK airports alone.
Further commenting on the situation, and in justification of the proposal, Mr Frattini said: "Are we less likely to be the goal of acts of terror than our American friends? Everything seems to demonstrate the contrary. The facts of this weekend are not yet known, but most terrorist plots involve home-grown radicalised youngsters travelling to and from other parts of the world while going through the radicalisation process."
The recent US-EU deal has led to fears, within the human rights community, that issues of privacy were being compromised. The agreement does include a section where information pertaining to the ethnicity, religion and sex of a person is omitted, unless grounds to include it, on the basis that others' lives could be "seriously impaired" or "imperilled", can be found.
Source - Security International's European Correspondent
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