Cox goes to court to annul EU-US agreement

ON the eve of the EU-US summit in Dromoland Castle, EU President Pat Cox has asked the courts to annul the agreement that gives US authorities data on all airline passengers from the EU.

This will place a further dampener on the meeting that promises to produce very little of substance. The Americans have been playing down its importance and emphasising instead President George W Bush’s visit to the NATO summit in Istanbul.

The European Parliament twice voted against the passenger data agreement but this was ignored by the ministers of the 25 member states and signed in Washington at the end of May.

As a result, over 30 pieces of information about airline passengers, including their credit card numbers, address, e-mail and phone number, is being handed over to the US authorities.

The main cause of concern is that the information can be passed by the US to agencies in any other country and that the undertakings not to misuse or keep the data private are not legally binding.

A spokesperson for Mr Cox denied the timing of his decision to refer the issue to the European Court of Justice has anything to do with the date of the EU-US summit.

“The Legal Affairs Committee of the parliament took the final decision last week after which the President met the heads of the political groups and asked the parliament’s legal services to give their opinion. He took the decision yesterday and the papers will be issued today,” said his spokesperson, David Harley.

The parliament has twice voted by a small majority not to approve the passenger data agreement.

The US deputy secretary for Homeland Security, James Loy said: “We are confident it (the court) will sustain the agreement.”