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EU court blocks data deal with US The European Court of Justice has blocked an EU-US
agreement that allows European airline passenger data to be transferred
to the US authorities. European airlines have been obliged to give US authorities passengers' names, addresses and credit card details. The measure - opposed by the European Parliament - was designed to help prevent acts of terrorism. The agreement demands that within 15 minutes of take-off for the United States, a European airline must send the US authorities 34 items of personal information about the passengers on board. Washington has warned that it will impose heavy fines and deny landing rights for any airline failing to comply with the agreement. The US demanded tighter airline security worldwide after the 11 September 2001 attacks on New York and Washington by suicide hijackers. Parliament opposition The European Commission, EU governments and the US had signed the deal despite privacy objections from the European Parliament. The parliament asked the European Court of Justice to annul the deal. In its ruling on Tuesday, the court found that the EU Council of Ministers' decision to sign the agreement on "Passenger Name Records" lacked an adequate legal basis. "Consequently, the Court annulled the Council decision approving the conclusion of the agreement," a court press release said. But the court gave EU member states until 30 September 2006 to find a new legal solution "for reasons of legal certainty". EU and US officials insisted the data gathered would only be used to fight terrorism and other serious crimes. The European Commission took the decision under the EU Data Protection Directive, but the directive does not apply to data collected for security purposes. The case against the data deal was brought by the European Data Protection Supervisor, in support of the parliament. The court said it was the supervisor's first such intervention. ---------------------------------------------------
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