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EU/US PRIVACY: CAPPATO "THE LETTER BY BOLKESTEIN AGGRAVATES EU COMMISSION RESPONSIBILITIES. RODOTA' SHALL INTERVENE"
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Declaration by Marco Cappato, Radical MEP of the Lista Bonino, EP
rapporteur on privacy:
"The letter sent by EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to the State Secretary Tom Ridge makes clear that the Commission is ready to do everything in its powers to allow for the CAPPS II system to be be operative from next 1st of April, also using EU citizens' data. The Commission hereby confirms its attitude of not taking into due account citizens' rights and the EP serious reservations on the issue of the transfer of personal data of transatlantic airline passengers to the US.
The Commission has promised to give to the US all data they had asked for, and declared to be ready to give - after a simple consultation - any other supplementary data the US administration may deem useful to create electronic profiles or to "file" all airline passengers.
Such a system of generalised surveillance cannot be considered compatible to the proportionality principle that the European Courts and European laws impose.
The rights of EU citizens have been violated since their data have been systematically transferred in these months to the US administration without any preventive information or consent. The case of JetBlue and Northwest airlines that have tranferred millions of data to test the CAPPS II system - and on which I have tabled a urgent question to the Commission - confirm how abitious and massive the future US system of surveillance will be.
We repeat our appeal to the President of the EU Privacy Authorities, Stefano Rodotà, to formally intervene to ask for provisions and sanctions to be applied against current illegal practices. And we ask to national privacy authorities to take measures where they have powers to do so, such as in Italy. We do not understand why President Rodotà and national privacy authorities do not activate the national and European instruments at their disposal to have the laws applied and citizens'rights respected".
The text of the letter by EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to the State Secretary Tom Ridge can be found on the website:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/privacy/docs/adequacy/pnr/...
For more informations: Office of Marco Cappato 0032 2 2847496 mcappato@europarl.eu.int
"The letter sent by EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to the State Secretary Tom Ridge makes clear that the Commission is ready to do everything in its powers to allow for the CAPPS II system to be be operative from next 1st of April, also using EU citizens' data. The Commission hereby confirms its attitude of not taking into due account citizens' rights and the EP serious reservations on the issue of the transfer of personal data of transatlantic airline passengers to the US.
The Commission has promised to give to the US all data they had asked for, and declared to be ready to give - after a simple consultation - any other supplementary data the US administration may deem useful to create electronic profiles or to "file" all airline passengers.
Such a system of generalised surveillance cannot be considered compatible to the proportionality principle that the European Courts and European laws impose.
The rights of EU citizens have been violated since their data have been systematically transferred in these months to the US administration without any preventive information or consent. The case of JetBlue and Northwest airlines that have tranferred millions of data to test the CAPPS II system - and on which I have tabled a urgent question to the Commission - confirm how abitious and massive the future US system of surveillance will be.
We repeat our appeal to the President of the EU Privacy Authorities, Stefano Rodotà, to formally intervene to ask for provisions and sanctions to be applied against current illegal practices. And we ask to national privacy authorities to take measures where they have powers to do so, such as in Italy. We do not understand why President Rodotà and national privacy authorities do not activate the national and European instruments at their disposal to have the laws applied and citizens'rights respected".
The text of the letter by EU Commissioner Frits Bolkestein to the State Secretary Tom Ridge can be found on the website:
http://www.europa.eu.int/comm/internal_market/privacy/docs/adequacy/pnr/...
For more informations: Office of Marco Cappato 0032 2 2847496 mcappato@europarl.eu.int
