The Daily Express blames “EU Bureaucrats” for “blocking” new anti-terrorist laws on the sharing of air passengers’ data.
These rules, in the pipeline since 2011, were given new impetus after the November 2015 Paris attacks.
In fact, the decision was not taken by “bureaucrats” but by elected members of the European Parliament. They voted 207 to 163 not to put the issue on this month’s parliamentary agenda.
And plans were not “blocked” or “halted”, merely delayed. Negotiators hammered out a deal last December – now the European Parliament has to give its formal approval. The only question is when.
The parliament’s socialist and democrat group – whose agreement would swing the vote – has already backed the air passenger rules. But their spokesperson Birgit Sippel wants the vote to happen alongside that on already-agreed data protection laws, to allay privacy concerns.
Once procedural holdups are dealt with, Sippel told InFacts a vote would “most likely be in April or May”.
For some, any delay to anti-terror measures is too long. But, given the five-year wait to agree them and the two years before they will take effect, an extra two months isn’t excessive.
Edited by Michael Prest