EU and USA look at how to improve counter-terrorism database exchange agreements

These are two basic agreements in the information exchange system for combating international terrorism which will be the focal point of the ministerial meeting between the EU and the USA, to be held this Friday at the El Pardo Palace, in the outskirts of Madrid.

It will be attended by the Spanish Home Affairs and Justice ministers, Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba and Francisco Caamaño, on behalf of the European Presidency and the United States Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security, Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano.

The EU Commissioners for Justice and Home Affairs, Viviane Reding and Cecilia Malström, and representatives from Belgium and Hungary have also been invited to attend.

In preparation for the meeting, Spain's ministers of Justice and Home Affairs today met with the United States Attorney General.

The meeting in El Pardo will focus on talks about the agreement on the transfer of banking and financial information (SWIFT), which is currently in abeyance, awaiting new negotiations, after the European Parliament rejected a provisional text in February which it did not feel adequately protect European citizens' rights.

The delegations will also broach the agreement on the transfer of passenger details (known as PNR, Passenger Name Records), currently in force, though only provisionally, as it has to be renegotiated to abide by the parameters determined by the European Parliament.

Lastly, another matter that will be discussed will putting measures into action that were agreed in the Informal Meeting of Justice and Home Affairs Ministers in January in Toledo, when the EU and the USA signed a declaration on improving air transport.

They will study a report with specific measures for joint action in the four fields set out in the declaration: air safety, information exchange, scientific and technical co-operation and international co-operation.