(BRUSSELS) - The European Commission on Thursday promised to issue a fuller list of objects banned from airplane cabins, after the EU's top legal adviser said the current situation "cannot be tolerated".

The European Advocate General berated the EU executive for "the persistent and deliberate non-publication" of the proscribed items list.

Advocate General Eleanor Sharpston highlighted the "fundamental absurdity" of the commission's position, saying that if it is obliged to keep the list secret then the issuance of a press release on the matter in 2002 was "a flagrant violation".

The problem is one "whose gravity is so obvious that it cannot be tolerated by the Community legal order," she added in a written opinion, which is not binding but of which the European courts will take note.

The issue was highlighted in the case of German traveller Gottfried Heinrich who was ordered to leave a plane in Vienna in 2005 as he was carrying tennis racquets, "allegedly prohibited items," according to the advocate general.

Heinrich took the case to court in Austria which has referred it to the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg.

EU spokesman on transport issues Michele Cercone reacted to the scathing legal opinion by promising that a fuller list "of concern to citizens" would be published soon.

However he added; "we want to protect citizens and certain details should not be made known to terrorists".

The problem dates back to the September 11, 2001 suicide-hijackings in the United States, after which the European Union took action to beef up civil aviation security.

Eventually even bottles of shampoo and big tubes of toothpaste were confiscated or consigned to a plane's baggage hold.

The commission issued a list of banned objects, including guns and knives but also baseball bats and bludgeons.

However the complete, official annex listing the items has never been published.

Advocate General Sharpston said the European Commission's position on the matter was so weak that the banned list "should be declared non-existent".

Opinion of the Advocate General in the case C-345/06
Heinrich

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