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Fri, Jul 31st 2009, 14:36

Marton Molnar, ul, (7)

Such a dispute occured in the case of Passenger Name Records on transatlantic flights. In the first version of that agreement, religious views and such information were to be sent to the Department of Homeland Security, but in the end, the EP and the ECJ found that many of the categories violate privacy. The main conclusion of the debate was that the US had a "security first, human rights and privacy second" view, while the EU stood for a "rights, privacy first" approach. It is obvious, that the Obama-administration did not change the attitude of the DHS too much.

Wed, Sep 9th 2009, 16:37

Brian McCarthy, independent consultant, Bronze Contributor (15)

In August this year, Mr Paul-Emile Dupret, a Belgian legal advisor to the European Parliament's United Left group, was on an Air France flight to Mexico to attend a conference there when the flight was refused entry to US airspace and was turned back.
The reason ?
Mr Dupet is 'persona non grata' in the United States of America.
His crime ?
he is an anti-globalisation activist working for the European Left party and is a known supporter of Hugo Chavez.

This is a travesty of justice and human rights and a display of breath-taking hegemony. It can only be possible when the EU and all others supply the kind of private, personal information in addition to credit card purchase details, address and perhaps political affiliation , to US officials on each passenger on aircraft not only bound for US but also entering US airspace.
This incident cannot be claimed to be an "anti terror " prevention incident but demonstrates the impunity given to Homeland security for certain interests to be able to stop a European parliament member attending a conference in a sovereign state outside the USA.
The inactivity or lack of actual response from the European Institutions is truly dismaying but, since one of their own has been targeted and victimised, it just might spur the Parliament into demanding some measure of equal discussion on the US actions in countering the perceived threats from terrorists.