EU seeks to collect more data on foreign travellers

Agence France Presse.

EU ministers on Friday backed plans to collect data on air travellers coming to Europe, a move which could force visitors to provide information three times before entering.

The ministers, meeting in Brdo Pri Kranju, Slovenia, also discussed setting up a new exit-entry register on the European Union's outside borders to help stop foreigners over-staying their visas, the main cause of illegal immigration.

The EU hopes to have the so-called passenger name record (PNR) plan -- modelled along lines similar to the one agreed with the United States last year -- in operation early next year.

"PNR is necessary for an efficient fight against terrorism and organised crime," Slovenian Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said after chairing talks here with his EU counterparts.

The system would affect Europeans and foreigners when they enter the bloc, but it would provide a new layer of controls on non-Europeans, who would also give information via their visas and the planned entry-exit register.

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said the register was a must to stop cases like those in Italy involving Ukrainians who arrived on a tourist visa and then stayed and picked up black market jobs.

"One of the main problems we are facing is over-stayers. That cannot be tolerated," he said. "Over-stayers are the factor number one of illegal immigration."

He said the electronic register would collect biometric data including photographs and fingerprints.

The US PNR scheme picks up far more information.

European air travellers surrender 19 categories of data about themselves to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which it can keep for 15 years and share with law enforcement agencies.

The agreement, which collects data like credit card and passport details, e-mail addresses and travel itineraries, has raised privacy concerns in Europe.

It is unclear exactly how much information would be retained by the EU's 27 nations, or which authorities would have access to it, but some countries did express concern about the amount of data changing hands.

"I'm not sure that a huge flow of information could be examined in any useful way by all the member states," said Luxembourg Justice Minister Luc Frieden.

He urged EU members to study the effects of the US system before pressing ahead. "I would first like to have more information about the efficiency of the system that we have agreed with the United States," he told reporters.

Mate did not rule out launching a study into the US agreement while Europe moves ahead with its own plan.

"We can do this in parallel," he said.

EU anti-terrorism coordinator Gilles de Kerchove underlined that the "system in the European Union should not be inferior" to the one agreed with the United States.

Frattini, who has been a strong supporter of the plan, said tests conducted on a similar, national scheme in Britain had shown that it works well.

"No ministers raised doubts about the usefulness," he said.

He said Denmark and France were considering such a plan -- Spain has already made preparations on a PNR register of its own -- and warned of the dangers of having a patchwork across the EU.

"Suspect people entering the territory of a state where there is not a PNR system, will be free to move to another state," he said.