EU risks copying flawed US border programmes (Barking and Dagenham Borough Liberal Democrats)

Barking and Dagenham Borough Liberal Democrats <barkinganddagenham@libdems4london.org.uk>

EU risks copying flawed US border programmes

March 10, 2009 10:10 AM
Originally published by Sarah Ludford MEP

The European Parliament is set to adopt today a report on future EU border management, responding to plans from the European Commission.

The Commission proposes records of entry and exit, a registration programme for quicker entry for 'bona fide' travellers, and advance 'electronic travel authorisation' (ETA) for those not subject to visas. This is additional to watch lists for terrorists and criminal suspects and plans for collection of passenger data through airlines.

London MEP Sarah Ludford, Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman, said:

"Well-managed border are essential, but ideas presented in Brussels seem to emanate from Washington just as the Americans discover they don't work! US audit watchdogs have advised Congress that the US-VISIT programme 'provides less security and privacy than the alternatives'. Yet EU policy-makers want to make the same mistake of mass data collection instead of targeted intelligence-gathering."

"There is no explanation of how the dizzying array of measures will interact, for instance the ETA and the entry-exit system with the system of biometric visas which I negotiated for the Parliament and which is yet to become operational. New systems may look good on paper but end up becoming white elephants."

"While facilitation of frequent travellers may be useful, the concept of a bona fide or low risk traveller implies others are dodgy. The potential for people to be wrongly tarred with suspicion through misidentification or misjudged 'profiling' expands alarmingly as more and more data is collected."