EU-US: How the northern "axis" is taking shape
01 January 2002
A common EU-US area on asylum/security, cooperation agreements and common databases
The letter of demands from President Bush to the EU on 16 October effectively defines the broad scope of the "axis" (see Statewatch, vol 11 no5). This letter from Bush was effectively to enforce the US-EU Ministerial Statement on combating terrorism on 20 September. The letter was followed up at a meeting in the US on 18 October attended by a EU Troika mission comprised of representatives of the EU's Police Chiefs Operational Task Force, Europol's newly-created anti-terrorist group, Eurojust and the security and intelligence services.
On the issue of "border controls" the letter said US-EU cooperation should cover transit procedures, "border security", "machine-readable passports and visas and explore further use of biometrics", exchange information on lost/stolen documents, and "improve cooperation on the removal of status violators, criminals and inadmissibles".
Just 10 days later, on 26 October, there a special meeting on the EU's high-level Strategic Committee on Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum (SCIFA) with US agencies. The US demands at the meeting closely mirrored those in the Bush letter.
1. The US wants to introduce immigration and customs controls in airport transit areas which would require the major changes to all EU airports. Despite the EU reservations expressed at the meeting this issue is now being discussed.
2. The US said it wanted data to be exchanged "between border management services". This could include "passenger lists" and "data on persons known to be inadmissible due to involvement in criminal activity (trafficking, dealing in false documents etc)".
The US said that it had a database, drawn from different US agencies, on the 10 million a year visa applications made and the database contained the names of people "involved in various kinds of activities giving rise to concern." US consular officials when processing visa applications check names against the database and "signals" are given for: green (OK), red (refuse) and yellow (where a person should be checked/vetted further). A change in the US law meant this information could now be shared with other governments.
The European Commission representative at the meeting said that the EU was intending to create an online database on visas issued but shared a view ? expressed by several member states ? that "sharing information could give rise to difficulties at the level of data protection requirements". The US responded by saying that "data concerning US residents was protected" - which begs the obvious question: What about data on non-US citizens (the rest of the world)?
3. The US wants all EU governments to extend usage of airline passenger details held on APIS (Advanced Passenger Information System). At present, the US said, details on only 85% of passengers were available for checking against the "watch list". Their intention was to extend the system to cover the entry and exits of all passengers. Moreover, the US was looking into the Australian practice of using APIS: "for pre?boarding intervention especially in the case of "watch?list" persons". This would mean that people on the list, including so?called "inadmissibles" would not be allowed onto a plane going to the USA.
Asked by EU delegation representatives about the "handling of personal data" the US representatives said the data was limited to that a person would have to give on a landing card ? the difference of course is that unlike the completion of a landing card by the individual concerned this would be recorded without their knowledge.
4. Under the heading: "Improve cooperation in the removals of status violators/criminals/inadmissibles" the US delegation requested:
greater cooperation from its European partners in assisting in the return of inadmissible persons to their country of origin
The US said that only 2,000 "returns" to country of origin (out of a total of 18