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Report argues case for EU-US data sharing

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Kablenet.com

Published: 07 Aug 2008 16:18 BST

Europe should consider sharing vast amounts of information on its citizens with the US, according to a high-level confidential report by six countries' ministers.

The 27 members of the EU should also pool intelligence on terrorism, develop joint video surveillance and unmanned drone aircraft, start networks of anti-terrorism centres, and boost the role and powers of an intelligence co-ordinating body in Brussels, reports The Guardian.

The 53-page report drafted by the Future Group of interior and justice ministers from six EU member states — Germany, France, Sweden, Portugal, Slovenia and the Czech Republic — suggests the establishment of a "Euro-Atlantic area of co-operation" to combat terrorism.

The report, seen by The Guardian, was submitted to EU governments last month following 18 months of work. The group, which also includes senior officials from the European Commission, was established by Germany last year and charged with drafting a blueprint for security and justice policy over the next five years.

Baroness Scotland, the UK attorney general, had observer status with the group to assess the implications for Britain, whose legal system, unlike continental Europe, is based on the common law.

The report said the EU would fail to beat terrorism unless it developed a full partnership with Washington, a process currently pushing ahead in fits and starts. "The EU should make up its mind with regard to the political objective of achieving a Euro-Atlantic area of co-operation with the United States in the field of freedom, security and justice," it says.

Such a pact, which should be finalised by 2014 at the latest, would entail the transfer of vast volumes of information on European citizens and travellers to the US authorities. Negotiations have long been underway to agree such a pact, but have been bedevilled by divergences in privacy law and data-protection regimes.

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The US is already demanding that EU countries sign up for a battery of security measures on transatlantic flights and the supply of personal information on passengers if they are to enjoy visa-free travel to the US. Under one such accord, struck in March between Washington and Berlin, the Germans are to make DNA and biometric information on travellers available.

The European Commission and the US Department of Homeland Security are also trying to iron out discrepancies in privacy laws to allow the wholesale exchange of data. The aim is to reach a binding international agreement this year or next.

Last month the American Civil Liberties Union wrote to MEPs pressing Brussels to reject US pressure because the US is "a country that, in privacy terms, is all but lawless... US privacy laws are weak. They offer little protection to citizens and virtually none to non-citizens."

While urging a comprehensive transatlantic electronic pact, the Future Group focuses mainly on boosting police co-operation and integration between EU states, policies that would reinforce the powers of European agencies and institutions.

Several member states, not least Britain, will have deep qualms about the proposals, with the British likely to balk at automatic pooling of national intelligence.

While co-operation between national police forces in the EU was advancing, the report concedes that the sharing of espionage and intelligence material is a "considerable challenge" as it clashes with the principle of confidentiality that is the basis for successful exchanges.