Court ruling could jeopardize trans-Atlantic travel to US
A court ruling that the European Union went beyond its authority in releasing personal information about airline passengers could lead to major disruptions in trans-Atlantic air travel.
The European Union’s highest court made the ruling that the Union should not have agreed to give the US details about airline passengers on flights to America.
“The decision forces the two sides to renegotiate the deal at a time of heightened concerns about possible infringements of civil liberties by the Bush administration in its campaign against terrorism, and the extent to which European governments have cooperated,” said The New York Times.
The ruling gives both sides four months to reach a new agreement. Without an agreement, however, the US could take such actions as denying landing rights to airlines that withhold information.
Trans-Atlantic air travel accounts for nearly half of all foreign air travel to the US.
The European Court of Justice found the European Commission and the European Council lacked the authority to make their deal with the US, which was reached in May of 2004.
The agreement to provide passengers information took 18 months to negotiate. It was to have lasted through 2007. The deal gave American authorities access to 34 categories of information about passengers on all flights from the 25 nations in the union.
An American official in Brussels told The Times the US would seek a diplomatic arrangement with the European Union that did not disrupt air travel.
Europeans are easily the largest single class of visitors to the US, with 9.6 million Europeans entering the US in 2004.
Report by David Wilkening
David
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