Lista Bonino MEP Marco Cappato has explained that the Belgian privacy regulator Paul Thomas has accepted his request to check whether EU privacy legislation was violated by Continental Airlines and United Airlines during his recent trips to the United States. Belgian officials have contacted the airlines for information about the criteria for transferring this information to the US authorities, explains Cappato, who supports the campaign launched by European Digital Rights against controls on passengers flying to or transiting through the US, controls carried out as part of the US Administration's fight against terror.
Cappato has sent European consumer organisations a letter noting that Commissioner Bolkestein has confirmed "what we Radicals, and others, have been saying for weeks, namely that the US Administration continues to refuse to supply sufficient guarantees of the protection of personal information ... which the US has had access to since 5 March" (see Europe of 28 May, p.15). The MEP says this means that we are about to start the third month of systematic violation of EU legislation by airlines without being able to have a negotiated solution.