Passenger Data Deal
July 19, 2007
EU ambassadors finalized the draft agreement in sessions on Thursday and it is expected to be signed by the bloc's foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.
The new agreement will provide the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) with 19 categories of data about European air travelers flying to the United States. The DHS will be allowed to keep the information in its database for 15 years and share details with other law enforcement agencies under certain conditions.
The EU reached an "understanding" on elements of the deal late last month but certain "reservations" had to be reviewed by some of the bloc's 27 member states who are obliged to pass the accord through their national parliaments.
The agreement will significantly lower the number of categories of data available to the DHS as stated in the previous agreement between the EU and US.
Post-9/11 deal saw 34 categories shared
Following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington, the EU and the US signed an agreement under which the EU agreed to grant US authorities access to up to 34 categories of information on passengers on all flights to the US taking off from EU member states. These included names, addresses, phone numbers and credit card numbers of travelers.
That agreement, which was set to expire on July 31, stirred unease among EU lawmakers amid concerns that civil liberties were being eroded in the fight against global terrorism.
The EU-wide concerns over data privacy led to the agreement being annulled by the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg in May. The EU and the US then reached an interim agreement as the EU warned that airlines would be vulnerable to privacy complaints if no replacement deal had been reached before the interim one expired.
The new deal will affect the tens of thousands of European passengers who fly to the US every day. Despite the reduction of categories, it's likely to reignite the controversy over potential infringements of privacy.