Courtesy of the Counterterrorism Blog:

By Victor Comras

The European Court of Justice acted May 30th to annul a US – EU agreement under which passenger information was provided to US Homeland Security authorities in advance of boarding on all transatlantic flights from EU countries to the United States. Under the agreement airlines are required to supply the US Bureau of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) more than 34 items of information about each passenger, including name, address and ID numbers and credit card details, all within 15 minutes of departure for the US. The agreement also covers special meal requests, which can indicate a passenger’s religion or ethnicity. This info has been provided since March 2003 under an interim accord. That accord was formalized in May 2004, provoking a challenge from the EU Parliament which asked the European Court of Justice to rule on the legality of the arrangement (see my earlier blog).

The EU Court ruled that the provision of such information violated EU privacy rights legislation. The Court also held that there was no legal basis on which the EU Commission or Council could base such action.

The Court judgment will only take effect after September 30th, at the end of the expected busy summer travel period. This will allow time for both sides to develop new basis and criteria for furnishing and protecting such information. Nevertheless, this new development threatens to significantly complicate future air travel from Europe to the United States as US Homeland Security authorities are likely to continue to insist that such information be provided before EU origin air passengers are landed in the United States.