EU moves to collect air passengers data

The European Union plans to ask airlines to hand over information about air travellers to EU authorities, a move that follows hotly-debated US data gathering plans to combat terror, diplomats said on Monday.
The proposal, to be discussed by justice and interior ministers on Tuesday, is part of a broader EU effort to combat illegal immigration, but could also boost the fight against terror in the wake of the deadly March 11 train bombings in Madrid.
The proposal, put forward by Spain last year, would be more limited in scope than the US arrangement as Europe only seeks passengers' travel itineraries and passport details.
"The United States wants more detailed information than the EU," an EU official told Reuters.
The United States has angered privacy watchdogs by demanding that airlines hand over to Washington up to 34 individual data items that could include credit card details, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers to detect potential US-bound guerrillas.
A key committee in the European Parliament rejected a draft EU-US deal on handing over air passengers' data earlier this month, saying Washington was not providing adequate privacy safeguards for EU passengers.
The full EU assembly is due to vote on the EU-US deal on Wednesday. The vote, whose outcome is uncertain, is non-binding, but a rejection of the accord will send a strong political message to the European Commission, which negotiated the deal.
The EU data collection plan provides for data to be stored for 24 to 48 hours. Diplomats said Britain wanted the time length to be extended in view of the fact that the United States was keeping the data for three and a half years.
Another bone of contention was whether or not to allow immigration officers to pass on the data to law enforcement authorities so that the data could be matched against criminal records.
In some EU states border control is done by law enforcement agencies. In others, like Britain, immigration authorities are civilian organisations.
A US diplomat said last week Washington was prepared to hand over airlines passengers' data to EU authorities.