Europe and U.S. seek new air data deal
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Top European and U.S. officials kicked   off talks on Friday to try to replace an annulled deal on   sharing air passenger data to avoid possible disruptions to air   travel when the arrangement expires on September 30.
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Negotiators have reached an agreement on how to transfer information about passengers flying to the U.S. from Europe.
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European and U.S. security officials were locked in talks in Brussels Monday to replace a passenger data sharing agreement that wasÂ outlawed by a European courtÂ in May.
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Wants to rein in war on terror The European Parliament is demanding a say on the computerized front of the US anti-terror war and pressing for a global agreement on inter-government data sharing.â¦
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The United States and the European Union failed to reach a new deal on sharing air passenger data by Saturday's deadline, though officials said negotiations would continue.
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EU and U.S. officials reached a deal on Wednesday on the transfer to the United States of private data on transatlantic air passengers for use in the fight against terrorism, an EU spokesman said.
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The United States has sent to the European Union a draft agreement on the transfer of airline passenger data after negotiations to avert a showdown that could have paralyzed transatlantic traffic.
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EU ministers on Friday backed plans to collect data on air travellers coming to Europe, a move which could force visitors to provide information three times before entering.
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The EU and the United States have  reached a preliminary deal on how U.S. authorities can consult  data from the international banking network SWIFT in  anti-terror investigations, an EU spokesman said on Wednesday.
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The European Union and the United States on Wednesday struck two deals designed to ensure U.S. access to private and bank data in its war against terrorism while trying to allay European privacy concerns.
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A new airline passenger information sharing agreement between the EU and the United States aimed at thwarting terrorism will likely go into effect yet this summer following concessions from both sides this week.
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(InfoWorld) - An agreement sheltering airlines from European privacy laws, allowing them to hand over passenger data required by U.S. authorities, expired Saturday, leaving most European airlines in legal limbo. NoÂ disruption to flightsÂ has been reported so far. However, if the legal void remains for more than a week or so, airlinesÂ face being suedÂ by individuals or groups in Europe, said Chris Kuner, a data protection specialist with the law firm Hunton & Williams. In the wake of the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, U.S. authorities demanded that airlines hand over passenger information covered by European Union data protection legislation. Airlines faced prosecution in the E.U. if they delivered the data, or fines in the U.S. if they don't. An agreement struck between the E.U. and U.S. in 2003 protected airlines from being sued for sharing the information, which includes names, addresses and credit card details. However, Europe's top court overturned the agreement in May and said it would become legally void at the end of last month. Efforts to negotiateÂ a replacement agreement intensified throughout September, but despite assurances of progress from both sides, the talks ended in impasse Saturday, as the deadline passed. As talks broke up, U.S. Secretary for Homeland Security Michael Chertoff made a draft proposal that European officials said may be discussed at a meeting of European justice ministers in Luxembourg on Friday. The Commission hopes an agreement will be reached that day. British Airways said that a Air Navigation Order issued by the U.K. government protects it legally in the absence of a new agreement. "The order from the government supercedes European data protection laws," said spokesman Richard Goodfellow. Air France spokeswoman Veronique Brachet said that although she was unaware of the French government issuing a similar order, her company would continue to supply the data to U.S. authorities and foresaw no disruption to its transatlantic flights. "The European Commission has said we can fly to the United States, so I see no problem," she said. Karim Retzer, a data protection specialist at the law firm Morrison & Foerster said airlines are unlikely to be sued. But Kuner, the lawyer with Hunton & Williams, warned that if the legal situation isn't resolved swiftly there is a danger that European data protection authorities will be forced to take action against the airlines. "The European Commission will probably ask the national data protection authorities (DPAs) not to take action, and will assure them that a new agreement is imminent, but if they fail to secure a new agreement within a week or so, there is a very real risk that a privacy group or even an individual passenger may lodge a formal complaint. This would force the DPA to take action," Kuner said. If a complaint was lodged then the DPA would order the airlines to withhold the information from U.S. authorities. If the airline obeyed then it would face fines of up to $6,000 per passenger in the U.S., and the possible withdrawal of landing rights there, Kuner said. Kuner said he was surprised by the failure to renegotiate the original agreement in time for the deadline at the end of September. "We were given the impression that it was simply a matter of changing the legal basis of the first agreement, and that no attempts to change the substance of the deal would be made," he said. However, last month Chertoff said the original agreement obstructed his efforts to maintain a high level of security. The agreement allowed for 34 categories of information to be handed over. The U.S. has been pushing to increase this number during the negotiations over the past month. "Chertoff is in a much stronger position to negotiate," Kuner said, adding: "He doesn't face any legal issues in the U.S., so he doesn't feel the same pressure to reach an agreement that his European counterparts feel."
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(InfoWorld) - A failure by the U.S. and European Union to reach a new agreement next month on the provision passenger data for transatlantic flights could ground up to 105,000 people each week, the International Air Transport Association's (IATA) director general said Thursday. The two sides need to reach a new accord by the end of September, after the European Court of Justice ruled in May that the current agreement is unacceptable. That agreement calls for airlines to provide U.S. authorities with the names, addresses, ticket payment details, and telephone numbers of passengers on U.S.-bound flights. The EU'sÂ highest court ruledÂ that there was no "appropriate legal basis" for the deal, and said it would cease to be valid from October. If a new agreement isn't reached before then, airlines will be forced to decide whether to continue providing the information in violation of European privacy law, withhold the information in violation of U.S. law, orÂ ground flights to avoid breaking any law, said Giovanni Bisignani, director general and CEO of IATA, at a news conference in Tokyo. "I hope that there will be an agreement because I know that the cooperation between the Homeland Security and European Union is strong and effective," he said. "I think there is time to find a decision," Bisignani said. "It's not up to me to say which is the best decision. It's up to me to say I look forward to increased cooperation and increased discussion between the two parties because we cannot be in a situation on Sept. 30 when we have to make the decision which law to break." Bisignani's comments came two days after U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff wrote in The Washington Post that the U.S. needs continued access to the personal information on passengers, and also wants the rules relaxed on how the information can be used. The US Customs and Border Protection receives the information regularly, he wrote, but cannot share it freely with investigators in other Department of Homeland Security divisions, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or with the Federal Bureau of Investigations -- "never mind with our allies in London." "This information might yet identify associates of those arrested in the plot in Britain, but the rules blind us in routinely searching for that connection," Chertoff wrote. The U.S. says the data allows them to identify certain passengers for additional screening when they arrive in the U.S. while reducing the amount of time spent on screening low-risk passengers.
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U.S. Air Forces in Europe is looking to cut wait times and administrative headaches for airmen on their way to a new assignment in Germany.
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The European Union reached an agreement with the United States Friday on the sharing of data on trans-Atlantic air passengers, diplomats said.
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The United States said it had approved a draft deal on the transfer of airline passenger data after negotiations with the European Union to avert a showdown that could have paralyzed transatlantic traffic.
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(InfoWorld) - The European Union has reached a preliminary agreement in the long-runningÂ dispute over the handling of personal dataÂ about E.U. citizens flying to the U.S., a European Commission spokesman said Thursday. Franco Frattini, the commissioner for justice and home affairs, together with German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble and U.S. secretary for homeland security Michael Chertoff, reached the agreement on Wednesday. However, details wonât be made public until after a meeting of ambassadors for all 27 E.U. countries slated for Friday morning, said Friso Roscam Abbing, Frattiniâs spokesman. The ambassadors will have to sign off on the deal, which observers say is likely to happen. U.S. authorities have been trying to use the renewal of a transatlantic agreement permitting the transfer of European air passengersâ data, known as passenger name records (PNRs), to beef up their powers of surveillance of foreigners entering the U.S. Sharing the dataÂ breaches strict European data protection laws, but the European Commission and national governments in the 27 countries in the E.U. negotiated an exemption from the rules in order to allow the U.S. to better protect itself from potential terrorist attacks. That interim agreement was deemed illegal by the European Court of Justice, and the court gave the E.U. until the end of July to come up with a new accord. Failure to do so wouldÂ leave European airlines exposed to massive finesÂ and the possible loss of landing slots in the U.S if they donât continue to hand over the data, or legal action on data protection grounds in the E.U. if they do. Roscam Abbing declined to comment on reports that the political agreement reached Wednesday allows U.S. authorities to hold onto PNR data for 15 years. âWait until the briefing tomorrow,â he said.