EU, US sign passenger data sharing deal - by Paul Meller
Critics of last week's agreement allowing European passengers' personal data to be shared with U.S. authorities have just under a month to reshape the accord before it comes into force, said Stavros Lambrinidis, vice president of the European Parliament's civil liberties committee Monday.
"There is a battle to make this agreement respectful of European citizens' civil liberties, and it's not over," he said in a telephone interview. The European Parliament has no direct say in the shaping of an agreement that will give U.S. customs, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and other agencies including the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency free access to airlines' passenger databases to help them prevent potential terrorist attacks.
However, some national parliaments will get the chance. "There are about six or seven countries that have to debate this agreement. There is still a chance to change it," Lambrinidis said. In an interview last week, Europe's data protection supervisor, Peter Hustinx, said his main concern was that the E.U. would grant American agencies the right to pull up information about Europeans whenever they want.
The main concern, however, is that the agreement omits any binding undertakings for U.S. authorities to safeguard European citizens' data. The details of this arrangement aren't in the agreement itself but in an exchange of letters that haven't been made public, Lambrinidis said. Reacting to the agreement last week, Hustinx said he fears the measure could violate European citizens' rights to privacy. In addition to allowing U.S. authorities to keep the data for 15 years, there would be "no limitation to what U.S. authorities are allowed to do with the data," Hustinx wrote in a letter to Schaeuble on Wednesday after the German minister clinched the deal.
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