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Passenger Name Record agreement
October 11, 2006 12:00 AM
Mr President, the Presidency said that the final outcome is a success, but I say it is a sell-out. We are told that data protection will be in compliance with relevant European standards, but I read in paragraph 3 that the Americans will process data in accordance with applicable US laws, and in paragraph 1 that data will be handed over as required by the Department of Homeland Security.
Then we have the accompanying US side letter which says that they will interpret the agreement as laid down by President Bush's executive decrees on data sharing and access by other agencies. This is a complete assertion of US jurisdiction, so I would like to ask Commissioner Fratini to tell us whether he accepts this accompanying US side letter as an intrinsic part of the agreement.
Paragraph 6 of the agreement says that the Department of Homeland Security is 'deemed' to ensure an adequate level of data protection. Now what on earth does 'deemed' mean? Paragraph 1 says that we are relying on US continued implementation of the undertakings as interpreted in the light of subsequent events. So we are at the mercy of events to tell us if the US will respect its undertakings! So the Presidency assertion that the earlier undertakings continue to apply is baseless.
The Commission and the Council say that the agreement delivers legal certainty for EU citizens. I agree with this only in one respect: the certainty that their legal rights have been sold down the river, or rather across the pond. This is not theoretical; we have heard all this year on the Temporary Committee on the alleged use of European countries by the CIA for the transport and illegal detention of prisoners, regarding people about whom soft information has been transferred to the United States that has become hard information, leading to people being rendered to places like Syria and tortured for months or years or incarcerated in Guantánamo Bay. This is not theoretical.
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