There seems to have been very little comment about the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruling on Tuesday that struck down an agreement between the EU and the USA. This requires that up to 34 pieces of information about every passenger on flights headed to the USA must be given to the Department of Homeland Security at least 15 minutes before take-off.
European law requires that data can only be transmitted outside the EU in these circumstance if the security arrangements are up to the standards demanded by EU Data Protection legislation. Obviously under pressure from the USA to avoid disruption to trans-Altlantic air travel, the EU Commission and the Council of Ministers (from all the member countries) agreed to the arrangement. The European Parliament challenged their decision that the US data security was adequate. Now the ECJ has ruled that the agreement is invalid and must be renegotiated by the end of September. A full copy of the judgement is available on the Court site.
The ruling is perhaps ironic in a week when the Veterans Administration had to admit to losing a disc drive containing information that could be used for identity theft. That is partly what the EP’s concerns are all about. The information demanded includes the traveller’s name and address, credit card details and the details of any special dietary or other arrangements requested for the flight. Obviously a request for a halal meal would immediately identify the person as Muslim.
This data is given by US airlines without question. Failure to comply means fines of thousands of dollars for each passenger and possible loss of landing rights. After September 30, it will be illegal for European airlines to transmit the data unless the agreement is renewed in a legal fashion. This brings the possibility of huge disruptions from October. The ruling could also be extended to US airlines sending data collected in Europe. Without it, checks will have to be made at the immigration point, further extending the already lengthy lines.
The BBC paper review gives an idea of how this has been received.
Austria’s Der Standard says the EU judges’ decision may have “serious consequences”.
“If the US maintains its current stance, then the consequences of the ruling could go as far as European airlines being banned from landing in the United States,” it says.
The Spanish daily El Pais also highlights the fact that airlines could face a fine of $6,000 per passenger or be prevented from landing at US airports.
Although the exchange of data in the fight against terrorism “is as much in the interest of Europe as it is for the US”, the paper argues that the central problem is one of confidentiality.
The EU has to ensure that the USA will protect this data and not use it for other ends, it says.
Taking a wider perspective, Geneva’s La Tribune voices alarm at what it sees as the US authorities’ increasing infringement of individual liberties under “the noble pretext of slaying the terrorist hydra”.
The paper accuses the EU and Switzerland of showing “institutional weakness and a lack of political courage” in failing to resist “US pressure and its compulsive spy mania”.
“What Washington singularly lacks,” the Swiss daily argues, is “an interlocutor who is politically powerful and democratically credible … who could remind it of all the liberal principles which justified the creation of the USA.”