Europe tells US: 'Hands off our flyers' data'

The controversial electronic sharing of airline passenger data between the EC and the US, which the US says is necessary as an anti-terrorism measure but which some in the EU claim breaks data protection laws, took another knock last week when a European Parliament civil liberties commission called for a formal agreement - or a lawsuit.

The agreement between the European Commission and US, which obliges airlines to electronically hand over details of their transatlantic passengers, is currently on an informal footing. While European authorities said handing over any passenger details broke data protection laws, the stiff penalties involved - a fine of $6,000 per passenger and denial of landing rights – meant that most airlines had little choice but to give in.

It's not gone down well with the European Parliament. Earlier this month, the European Parliament said that the data transfer infringed passengers' rights because data could only be transferred to non-European countries that met data protection standards and the US was not as yet certified as one of those countries.

A vote in the Parliament found that the vast majority of MEPs voted in favour of a report criticising the data sharing – 439 for, 39 against.

The European Parliament has since upped the stakes, with a civil liberties body, headed up by a Dutch MEP, Johanna Boogerd-Quaak, drafting a resolution demanding that a formal agreement be reached, or that at the very least, passengers should be asked for their consent before any of their details are given away.

And if none of that gets the thumbs-up from Europe, the resolution said that EC could be taken to court.

Among the objections that the Parliamentary group had were the amount of data the US wanted to see and the lack of clarity over who should be able to look at the passenger records. The US said that its authorities involved with stopping "serious crime" should be able to access the data but as yet there have been no specifics on what constitutes "serious crime".

There's also no way for anyone denied access to the US based on their data to seek redress or to be guaranteed access to their own data in order to correct any mistakes in it.

A vote on the resolution will be taken in shortly. If the resolution is passed, the EC may be forced to re-examine the agreement.