Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2003-03-12-Speech-3-182"
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"en.20030312.5.3-182"2
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"Mr President, Commissioner, once again I wish to contradict the previous speaker. He needs to get a sense of proportion. Germany's airlines and those of other countries are informing the public about the new situation, and telling them that if they wish to fly to the USA, they need to agree that this data should be passed on. Nothing is being hushed up here, the public is being told about this. Yes, it is evident that that is not enough, but you are acting as if the public were being deceived by the airlines, and that is simply not the case.
I shall try to look at this whole issue from the standpoint of the airlines and their passengers for once. Because of the general recession, Europe's airlines were already in trouble before 11 September. The events of 11 September and the period that followed caused enormous problems not only for all European airlines but also for airlines in the US. As you will have read over the last few days, even American Airlines may have to file for Chapter 11 protection.
So the airlines find themselves in an extremely difficult situation. This will also have an impact on airports and on employment. It therefore has to be said that there is no point in disrupting air traffic between the USA and Europe over the next few weeks because of arguments of principle. We need to ensure that we can find a constitutional and practical solution to this problem.
Nor can I allow to go unchallenged the insinuation made by some Members that the US authorities will willingly misuse data on European and other citizens that comes into their possession. You need to bear in mind that before data protection was introduced in Europe, the Americans already had far more stringent data protection arrangements than we have, combined with strict rules about passing on data to third parties. So to that extent the allegation that the Americans would regularly misuse data passed to them is quite simply mistaken.
What we do of course need, Mr Bolkestein, is clear answers from you. How do you intend to achieve legal certainty that the US authorities will only receive data needed to fight terrorism and no other data? How do you intend to ensure that the Americans – and this also applies to company data – are only given the data they need, as opposed to data they can use to outmanoeuvre our businesses, our airlines and so on? You need to guarantee that by means of unambiguous agreements with the Americans.
That is the reason for my two other questions about the extent to which you are prepared to negotiate with the Americans. Which of the two possible legal solutions you have identified do you actually intend to pursue now, and how long will that take? I believe that in the present difficult situation faced by the airlines we cannot afford effectively to provoke an interruption of air traffic between the US and Europe."@en1
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