The US and European Union are close to a deal for sharing airline passenger information that would avert disruption to the world’s busiest air traffic routes. Officials from both sides of the Atlantic have confirmed that a new anti-terrorism agreement is almost certain to be signed on Thursday, two days before the current regime expires.“This is too big to fail,” said a US official. “We have made a lot of progress over the last few days.”
The US had been pushing for revisions of an existing accord that was ruled illegal by the EUÂ’s top court and expires on September 30. However, because time is short it has accepted the EUÂ’s offer of a similar deal under a different legal basis that would satisfy the judges.
In return the EU has pledged to start almost immediately negotiations on a new framework that could incorporate additional US demands, with the aim of implementing it well before November 2007, when the new deal will expire.
The agreement under negotiation still allows airlines to pass on more than 30 pieces of information – including dietary requirements, credit card details and family links – to US authorities. But the talks had stumbled on US demands to make it easier for its intelligence agencies to access the information.