Passengers on European Union flights could find themselves sharing a cabin with in-flight policemen and their personal data in the hands of the security services after EU interior ministers discussed proposals on both issues today, according to dpa. Europe is scrambling to improve its airport security after two major breaches in the last month, one of which allowed a passenger carrying a bomb to board a flight from Amsterdam to Detroit. The EU already shares passenger information with the United States, and US "sky marshals" already operate on some international flights, but the EU has not yet brought in either type of system in its own territory. "Obviously, we are looking at the possibility of posting people on board (passenger flights) to maintain security," the EU's justice commissioner, Jacques Barrot, told journalists at an informal meeting with EU interior ministers in the Spanish city of Toledo. At the meeting, ministers "agreed we must move towards a European Passenger Name Record (PNR), which is an absolutely vital instrument" in the fight against terrorism, Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba said. The PNR system allows airlines to share data on passengers. Under a deal between the EU and the US in 2007, EU airlines operating trans-Atlantic flights have to forward their PNR data to the US security authorities, but they do not have to share data systematically with the security services in EU states. That is a paradox, "as if a terrorist could not fly from London Heathrow to Madrid Barajas," Rubalcaba said. Spain currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, and is set to chair ministerial meetings on domestic issues such as security until the end of June.
