Main focus of Wednesday, May 31, 2006

EU court defends passengers' privacy

The European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on Tuesday, May 30 that the EU acted illegally when it gave a green light in 2004 to the transfer to american authorities of personal data on air passengers. The two sides have been given four months to come up with a new agreement. The European press analyses the upshot of this decision.

The Independent - United Kingdom

"Eurosceptics are fond of complaining about the interference of 'Brussels' in our private lives. We trust they will therefore be eager to welcome the fact that an EU institution has acted to safeguard our privacy," writes the progressive daily. "We must now be alert to any attempt by the US to replace the EU-wide deal with a series of bilateral deals on data transfer with national authorities. Although praise is due to the European Parliament for the role it has played, we should note that the European Commission and the Council of Ministers ... have hardly covered themselves with glory. Depressingly, our own government took on a prominent role in attempting to preserve the agreement." (31/05/2006)

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Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany

"Judges can be really mean," the daily writes in its commentary on the European Court of Justice's decision regarding the transfer of airline passenger data to the US. "The court simply examined whether the EU, embodied by the European Commission and the European Council, had the legal authority to sign the passenger data agreement. However the answer, which is based on strictly legal arguments, is no less embarrassing for the EU than if it had been rebuked for violating data protection laws. The court has established that the EU cited a data protection law that explicitly does not apply in matters of national security or criminal prosecution. Indeed, the member states expressly intended to limit the EU's political authority in such matters – they're jealously guarding their national powers. Consequently, bilateral negotiations between the US and each of the member states would have been necessary for such an agreement to be legal." (31/05/2006)

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El País - Spain

"The transfer of personal data as part of the fight against terrorism is fundamental, and it is just as important for the United States as for the Europeans who have also signed similar agreements with other countries such as Canada," the daily explains. "But the Bush administration is today regarded with more distrust than in the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks - which prompted the superpower to adopt these measures - and it is necessary that when renegotiating the agreement, Europeans ensure that the United States will protect this data and not use it to other ends. Unwittingly, the Court of Justice of the European communities put its finger on an essential problem: that of transatlantic trust."  (31/05/2006)

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Tribune de Genève - Switzerland

While aware of the fact that the European Court of Justice's decision does not spell the definitive demise of data transfer, Jean-Noel Cunod nonetheless welcomes its verdict. "It is clear that the European Union - let us leave Switzerland out of the equation - is currently proving itself too institutionally weak and lacking in political courage to resist the pressure exerted by the United States and its compulsive spy fever. Washington singularly lacks an interlocutor that is politically powerful and democratically credible. An interlocutor capable of reminding it of the liberal principals that lay at the foundation of the United States. And which the Bush government is arrogantly ignoring."  (31/05/2006)

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