WashPost: EU Agrees to Give U.S. Airline Passenger Data

EU Agrees to Give U.S. Airline Passenger Data

By Sara Kehaulani Goo
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, May 15, 2004; Page A02


European airlines will soon share information about their passengers
with U.S. officials so they can be screened for security reasons,
under an agreement approved yesterday by the European Commission.

The agreement also would allow U.S. carriers to share information
about their passengers with European Union countries. The data
swapping would likely begin in the next several weeks, officials
familiar with the talks said yesterday.

Under the terms of the deal, U.S. airlines will pass along information
about each passenger such as name, date of birth, address and phone
number to the European country of destination. In the United States,
each passenger's information would be transferred to Customs and
Border Protection agents and compared against various watch lists of
known or suspected terrorists before the plane arrives in the United
States. The information could also be used for international criminal
probes such as drug trafficking.

U.S. Homeland Security officials agreed not to share the information
with other agencies unless they can prove it is relevant to a criminal
or intelligence investigation. U.S. officials also agreed to keep the
data for 31/2 years instead of the initially proposed seven years.

The agreement contains no changes from one that was brokered last
December but suffered several setbacks preventing final approval. The
European Parliament, a representative body with lawmaking authority,
claimed that the deal violated European privacy laws that restrict
private companies and government from sharing private information. The
parliament, which disapproved of the deal in a non-binding vote in
March, referred the agreement to a European court to review the
matter, which has yet to make a decision.

Officials on both sides of the Atlantic had argued the agreement was
necessary to improve security.

The European Commission in Brussels yesterday found that "adequate
protection is being provided by the United States to allow us to
provide personal data," spokesman Anthony Gooch said. To become
official, the agreement must also be approved by the European Council
of Foreign Ministers on Monday and European and U.S. officials must
sign the documents.

A U.S. Homeland Security spokesman yesterday declined to comment on
the European action, saying that the process still needs to finished.

Air carriers were pleased with the news yesterday, saying they have
felt sandwiched between legal requirements on either side of the
Atlantic. They already share passenger data with the U.S. government
under an informal but unofficial agreement.

"We certainly support the compromise and are anxious to have it
completed," said David O'Connor, director of the U.S. office of the
International Air Transport Association.


http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn...2004May14.html