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November 26, 2005
Whose Side Are They On, Anyway?...No. 139
The European Union continues to demonstrate exactly where their priorities lie. From the Counterterrorism Blog:
The European Court of Justice's Advocate General Philippe Leger, has just issued an Advisory Opinion favoring a EU Parliament challenge to a May 2004 agreement under which EU countries provide the US Bureau of Customs advance data on all air passengers traveling to the United States. [...] His Opinion called for the agreement to be annulled. [...] The Advocate General’s finding bolsters a previously existing court challenge to the agreement initiated by the EU Parliament several months ago. The Luxembourg-based European Court of Justice is expected to rule on the case in early 2006. While the Advocate General’s Opinion is not binding on the court it has been followed in a majority of cases before the court. [...]
An EU court ruling abrogating the agreement would throw a major wrench into the existing US aviation control system and would represent a major set-back for the G-8’s anti-terrorism Secure and Facilitated Travel (SAFTI) initiative.
Emphasis mine. This sounds like bad news to me. Given the fact that Britain, France and Germany alone host vast numbers of (often radicalized) Muslims, eliminating the advance notice of suspect passengers would seem to put a dangerously heavy strain on the receiving side: the Department of Homeland Security.
So what was the motivation for the EU Parliament to challenge a common-sense policy that seemed to be functioning smoothly? Obviously "privacy concerns" of Europeans outweigh discovering another Mohammad Atta.
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