European Commission regulators have agreed an interim pact with their US counterparts over the supply of passenger name record data to US authorities, after an original deal was annulled on technical grounds at the end of September.
The interim agreement will be valid from its signature to the end of July 2007. During this time the two sides will thrash out a more permanent arrangement.
Speaking at a press conference in Luxembourg during a justice and home affairs meeting, EC vice-president Franco Frattini said: “European negotiation teams achieved a very important result. The results are positive for the European Union – it will guarantee legal continuity on a very sensitive matter.”
Talks over a more permanent agreement will begin in Washington, DC in November while tests of a new system for transferring data will take place before the end of this year.
The need for a replacement agreement emerged after the European Court of Justice ruled in May that the original deal should be annulled on technical grounds, and set a 30 September deadline for the pact to end.
Although a draft replacement deal was sent by US homeland security secretary Michael Chertoff to Frattini on 30 September, this had only been approved on the US side.
But the Commission says that the negotiations had been constructive and, following the agreement over the interim deal, remains confident that a permanent solution will be found.
Source: FlightGlobal.com