3.4.2004   

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

CE 84/166

1.

Is it true that the agreement allows European citizens' personal data to be used in the testing of CAPPS II? How can the Commission guarantee that the American authorities will not, in fact, use this data in operational situations, that they will delete it as soon as the test phase is over and that they will not pass it on to third parties?

2.

Does the Commission share the view that pledging cooperation with the testing of a system that is at odds with European principles and rules on privacy protection and that, in principle, could have remained totally outside the agreement is an ominous step?

3.

The report in the Washington Post indicates that the Americans have been searching for passenger data to test CAPPS II as a matter of urgency. Was the commitment given by the Commission a condition for the discreet concessions made by the Americans in other areas of the agreement that facilitated the conclusion of this agreement?

1.

In the framework of its negotiations with the United States (US) authorities on the transfer of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data, the Commission has agreed that PNR data from the EU may be used in testing CAPPS II, but only subject to very strict and limitative conditions. In addition to the conditions mentioned by the Honourable Member, all sensitive data categories must have been deleted before any testing can take place. The letter from the Member of the Commission responsible for the Internal Market to US Homeland Security Department Secretary Ridge of 18 December 2003 on this subject, which is available on the Commission's website (1), makes it clear that the Commission is in principle prepared to co-operate with the Department of Homeland Security on CAPPS II, but only in so far as the CAPPS II system has obtained the necessary US domestic clearances first. No such testing using passenger data is in any case taking place now, as the US authorities have confirmed to us. The Commission believes that the political commitments it has received that the agreed conditions will be met can be relied on.

2.

The CAPPS II programme will involve the computerised pre-screening of passengers in advance of flights with the aim of concentrating examinations at the point of embarkation on those passengers who may present a rear risk. The US Department of Homeland Security considers this to be an important part of their efforts to ensure the safety of civil aviation and avoid any repetitions of the events of 9/11. The Commission would like to observe that it is premature to say that this programme is ‘at odds with European principles and rules on privacy protection’, first because CAPPS II is still under development in the US, and second because the Commission would start examining these questions only once the system has received all U.S. domestic clearances. Descriptions of CAPPS II published by the United States authorities, notably on 15 January 2003 and 31 July 2003, did indeed raise a number of specific concerns and any future possible use of data originating in the EU by this system would clearly have to be conditioned on adequate safeguards. Furthermore, the Commission is aware that the US General Accounting Office (GAO) has concluded in its February 2004 investigation requested by the US Congress that there were still a number of data protection concerns regarding CAPPS II.

3.

The Commission has no comment to make on the article in The Washington Post, other than to say that various barriers remain to be cleared before United States domestic carriers' passenger data and subsequently EU passenger data can be used for testing CAPPS II.

As regards testing, the Commission sees an interest in the Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) testing of CAPPS II with non-United States data as well as United States data, when one of the EU's main concerns is to ensure that the system should work fairly and not in a way which discriminates against non-American citizens.