Air travellers targeted in anti-terror plan

The European Union wants to collect personal data on air passengers travelling to or from the 27-nation bloc under draft anti-terrorism proposals.

The passenger name registration system (PNR) is similar to that introduced by the US after 9/11 and would see information kept for 13 years.

While the EU system will not apply to people travelling within the EU, each member state will be required to collect 19 pieces of personal data on international air passengers.

This data will include phone number, email address, payment and billing details, seating arrangements, luggage information and travel agent. More information would be added for unaccompanied children under the age of 18.

"The availability of PNR data... is necessary for the purpose of preventing and fighting terrorist offences and organised crime," the draft proposal says.

However, the EU Executive Commission said member countries will not request or use any data relevant to racial origin, political or religious beliefs or sexual orientation.

If any such data was to be transmitted, it was claimed this data would be immediately deleted. The commission also said passenger information would not be used to create a pan-European database.

This is because airlines would need to send the information to the first EU state where an aeroplane is to land, this means each EU member state would collect its own data. This data would then be shared with other EU countries when needed.

It also claimed the proposals would not place any further burden on airlines as they already have to give the name, date of birth, departure and arrival details of all air travellers for immigration checks.

"It is nothing new to information they already collect -- no new burdens on that," an EU official told news wire, Reuters.

Although the draft is not final and certain elements such as how long data is retained could still change when officials meet this week, civil liberties group Statewatch expressed concern saying it was not convinced the proposals would work or were necessary.

Tony Bunyan, editor of Statewatch, said: "This is yet another measure that places everyone under surveillance and makes everyone a suspect without any meaningful right to know how the data is used, how it is further processed and by whom.

"We have already got the mandatory taking of fingerprints for passports and ID cards and the mandatory storage of telecommunications data of every communication, now we are to have the mandatory logging of all travel in and out of the EU.

"The underlying rationale for each of the measures is the same - all are needed to tackle terrorism. Yet there is little evidence that the gathering of mountain upon mountain of data on the activities of every person in the EU makes a significant contribution. On the other hand, the use of this data for other purposes, now or in the future, will make the EU the most surveilled place in the world."

The proposals are part of a wider package of anti-terrorism measures, including making it a criminal offence to incite terrorism over the internet, that will be proposed by the European Commission on Tuesday. To become EU law then they will need to be adopted unanimously by EU member countries.