28 March 2012
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EU: Commission
"compromises" and agrees on handing over passenger
data to USA
- EU-USA
collusion heralds global imposition of the surveillance of travel
- "The
EU cannot refuse its ally in the fight against terrorism"
(EU Commissioner Bolkestein)
- The EU's Data Protection Article 29 Working Party:
"declined to adopt or approve
the text, on the grounds that the transfer of PNR to the US are
in any case illegal and nothing should be done to blur that fact"
- EU law
enforcement agencies want complete exemption from data protection
Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:
"This deal heralds a EU-USA axis initiative seeking to impose the exchange of passenger data globally through the ICAO. This will be the first step to vetting all passengers before they get on a plane, boat or cross-border train - denying boarding to those considered an immigration or security risk. The global surveillance of travel will not be limited to combating terrorism but will extend to "other serious crimes" - which is now defined so broadly as to include everything but very minor offences.
What is quite unforgivable is that the European Commission thinks that the EU-USA deal - with a state which has no data protection laws and no intention of adopting them - is a better basis for a global standard than the EU's data protection laws which have served as a model for many countries around the world.
This is the third EU-USA agreement which fundamentally
undermines the 1995 EC Data Protection Directive. It is no wonder
that in working parties in Brussels the EU's law enforcement
agencies are now calling for a complete exemption from data protection
provisions for law and order purposes, and the European Commission
agrees with them"
The European Commission
agreed on 16 December 2003 that passenger data (PNR, Passenger
Name Record) should be handed over by all airlines flying to
the USA to the US Customs and security agencies. At the same
time the Commission produced a Communication backing a global
approach to the exchange of personal passengers through a "multilateral
framework for PNR data transfer with the International Civil
Aviation Organisation (ICAO)".
The Commission has declared that the privacy protections "guaranteed" by the USA are "adequate" and under Article 25 para 6 of the 1995 EC Data Protection Directive will sign a ""light" international agreement which it expected to complete by March 2004.
The EU's Data Protection Article 29 Working Party:
"declined to adopt or approve the text, on the grounds
that the transfer of PNR to the US are in any case illegal and
nothing should be done to blur that fact" (footnote
7, page 7 of the Communication)
The Commission and the Article 29 Working Party also
disagrees on the issue of consent. Article 26.1.a. says that
a passenger must give their "consent unambiguously"
cannot be applied to exceptions of "adequate protection".
The Commission simply brushes this objection aside and relies
on the "conscious decision on the part of passengers"
- but what if passenger refuse to assent to their details being
passed over, will they be allowed to book a ticket?
Sources in the USA say that despite the European Commission insistance that CAPPS-II (where advanced passenger data allows people to be tracked around the country based on a "a threat rating") will be the subject of separate negotiations a Department of Homeland Security official said at a press briefing in Washington on 16 December that the EC had agreed to use of data from the EU for CAPPS-II tests.
Following discussions with the EU's law enforcement agencies the Commission intends to put forward a Framework Decision on Data Protection and Law Enforcement "by the middle of 2004" to allow "the screening of commercial data for law enforcement purposes".
In the negotiations with the USA the Commission effectively worked out a global plan and it is to put forward a paper to the ICAO "shortly".
There will be three opportunities for civil society to intervene:
1. The agreement announced on 16 December is a "paper" agreement which has no legal standing. The European Parliament has to be "consulted" on the "light" international agreement.
2. The Framework Decision exempting law enforcement agencies
from data protection: the European Parliament will have to agree
to every dot and comma and national parliaments will be able
to exercise their powers of scrutiny.
3. The ICAO global agreement instigated by the USA and the EU:
as there are no democratic procedures in place for global policy-making
civil society will have to make its views known to this UN body.
5. European airlines
are handing PNR data over to US Customs - Evidence from Spain-
full documentation of all the data collected and passed over
for one return flight by one passenger & full list of the
43 categories of personal data demanded by USA: Report
& documents
6. European Parliament
report opposes giving passenger data to USA without strict data
protection safeguards - and says if these are not met by 1 December
all data transfers should stop: Statewatch report
7. 1995
EC Data Protection Directive (link)
8. 1989
Regulation on computerised reservation systems
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