The European Union and United States agree on the need to strengthen airport security measures but consensus on the use of body scanners at airports is still pending, while EU interior ministers have asked researchers to move faster on issues including health and privacy in the use of body scanners.
 
Meeting in Toledo on January 21 2010, EU home affairs ministers asked the European Commission to speed up a report on new technologies such as body scanners, with the aim of coming up with a policy shared throughout the bloc on guaranteeing security, especially in air transport.
 
Also in Toledo during the EU ministers’ meeting was US secretary of homeland security Janet Napolitano.
 
At the meeting, a joint EU-US declaration was signed to strengthen international air safety measures and standards and to open a "global dialogue for the safety of international travel".
 
Spanish home affairs minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba told a news conference: "We are going to make a greater effort, and work together tirelessly and with more cooperation, as the best guarantee for preventing terrorist attacks.
 
 Napolitano said that Al-Qaeda was "devoting its best minds to thinking about how to carry out terrorist attacks and we must work to prevent it as best as we can".
 
 "It is a challenge that affects everybody and which we must all face together," Napolitano said.
 
The US was also ready "not only to collaborate with the EU but also to organise regional meetings" in places like Africa or with multilateral organisations such as the UN.
 
European Commission Vice President and head of security Jacques Barrot said that the European Commission "is going to speed up its report on technologies and body scanners" and restart the project to create a common passenger name record (PNR) for Europe with "the urgency the ministers have undertaken to back this project".
 
The three politicians highlighted the contradiction in the exchange of passenger data with the United States but not between European states, "as if a terrorist cannot catch a plane in Heathrow to travel to Madrid," Rubalcaba said.
 
As for the use of body scanners in airports, Barrot said that the European Commission was preparing a report on the effectiveness of this technology, its possible health affects and compatibility with the right to privacy.
 
Rubalcaba said that this issue had not been deal with at the January 21 meeting because it was the responsibility of the ministers of development.
 
He said that there were other technologies "as or more useful" in the fight against terrorism, such as those that detect the remains of explosives or determine the composition of metals and liquids.
 
 "A good PNR system may be, at least, as efficient" as the scanners, Barrot said.
 
For Napolitano, the use of scanners "is not the deciding factor nor essential for guaranteeing safety", although the US considers them as useful. It already has 40 up and running and plans to put 450 more in operation during this year.  
 
The joint EU-US statement said that the ministers, Barrot and Napolitano had discussed current terrorists threats, in particular the attempted attack on an aircraft approaching Detroit on December 25 2009, ways to strengthen international security measures and standards for aviation security, and an upcoming global dialogue on securing international travel.
 
"The rights threatened by terrorism, such as life, liberty and security of person, are among the most cherished human rights. The preservation of those rights is a fundamental task and a shared responsibility. Likewise, international air transportation is a global resource on which we all rely. When someone threatens one part of the system, they can cause harm throughout it," the statement said.
 
The EU and the US shared the responsibility "to prevent terrorists and serious criminals from conducting, planning, and supporting operations with the intention to cause harm to our populations including by exploiting civil aviation, while upholding the rule of law and observing and promoting respect for international law, including international human rights law". 
 
The attempted attack on December 25 highlighted the international nature of this threat, the statement said. "An international threat demands an international response". 
 
"The participants agreed that the following objectives should be pursued:
 
    * To identify individuals who pose a risk to our security as early as possible by bolstering the security of and our confidence in travel documents, the use of biometrics, and passenger screening, so we can prevent such individuals from travelling and posing a threat.
    * To identify the illicit materials that such people may be carrying, sending via cargo, or transporting, including through enhanced technologies, to prevent the entry of such materials onto aircraft.
    * To work with other partners worldwide to implement necessary changes to their aviation security regimes, including by enhancing aviation security capacity.
    * To continue to work together and with other international partners, including at the ministerial level, toward greater international travel security," the statement said.
 
They asked that several measures prepared (at expert level) in the following areas, to be considered at the high level meeting, in April, 2010, on justice and home affairs between the EU and the United States within the context of the transatlantic dialogue.
 
Aviation Security
 
    * Continue the excellent cooperation between the EU and the United States on aviation security issues based on the EU-US Air Transport Agreement.
    * Intensify regular discussion on transport security by way of the EU-US Transport Security Working Group.
    * Support the provision of pre-departure information to aid in screening.
    * Enhance measures for onboard flight protection and improve mechanisms for emergency communications.
    * Share best practices on search techniques, including behavioural detection training and methods.
    * Exchange research results, technical expertise, and practical experiences, including concerning explosives.
    * Promote international co-ordination of efforts to build sustainable solutions to the current threat, including through ICAO.
 
Information Sharing
 
    * Examine, as a matter of urgency, the functioning of and the opportunities for our data information exchange mechanisms, including via avenues such as liaison officers and operations centers, to ensure that we do the utmost to reduce the risk to air travellers and others, while ensuring effective protection for our citizens’ privacy and civil liberties.
    * Draw on the results of the joint review of the July 26, 2007 EU-U.S. Passenger Name Records (PNR) Agreement and the reviews under way in the United States on use of passenger information in the prevention of terrorism in considering what and how operational cooperation sharing could be further improved and compatible approaches could be developed among partners committed to aviation security, the rule of law, and international humans rights.
 
Research activities
 
    * Prioritise national and cooperative research and development in related subjects such as physical and behavioural explosives detection and mitigation through the Agreement for Scientific and Technical Cooperation between the Government of the United States and the European Community, as extended and expanded to include security research in July 2009.
 
International Activity
 
    * Work together with and in affected third countries and regions in the field of capacity building and development to support counter-terrorism work in those areas where terrorist groups operate and prevent these areas from becoming zones where terrorists can train and prepare their criminal acts.
    * Co-ordinate efforts to strengthen aviation security worldwide, to ensure the most efficient use of resources to promote effective screening and other security techniques in countries with flights to our countries.
    * Cooperate in the establishment and acceptance of international standards in aviation security, including in passenger and cargo information.
 
However, Deutsche Welle reported, influential members of the European Parliament have announced their opposition to the proposals of Europe's 27 interior and justice ministers to tighten airport security by extending the scope for dragnet operations.
 
The issue causing misgivings is that ministers proposed speeding up the introduction of measures to collect passengers' data for dragnet anti-terror operations, even though they had earlier resisted US calls for the wholesale use of body-scanners in airports.
 
"It will be very difficult for the European Council to get a majority in parliament for this proposal," Manfred Weber, deputy head of the Christian Democratic faction of the European Parliament, was quoted as saying.
 
Justice spokesman for the Green party faction, Jan Philipp Albrecht, accused EU domestic commissioner Jacques Barrot and the European Council of creating facts for their own purposes. Albrecht said that the Lisbon Treaty, which came into force at the beginning of December, empowered the European Parliament to full participation in decision-making on internal affairs, with the power to block legislation.