EU puts off reply to US request for airport body scanners

(TOLEDO) - The EU will decide on a US request that Europe install body scanners at its airports after studies into their effects on health and privacy are completed, EU officials meeting in Spain said Thursday.

Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU, said the European Commission was carrying out the studies into the scanners' effectiveness and possible impacts on health and privacy.

"Once we have these studies on the table we will make a decision," he told a news conference with US Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano following talks with interior ministers from across the 27-nation bloc in the central Spanish city of Toledo.

The United States has accelerated the installation of body scanners at its airports since the attempted attack on Christmas Day on a jet bound for Detroit from Amsterdam, and it would like the EU to follow its lead to monitor passengers crossing the Atlantic.

Napolitano said the United States currently uses 40 body scanners at its airports and intends to have "at least 450 within the next year."

"Al-Qaeda has used and will use its best minds against aviation security and we must do no less," she added.

Spain wants the EU to develop a common policy on the use of the scanners, which can "see" through clothing to reveal concealed liquids, explosives or weapons.

Napolitano said the US was not seeking to impose a decision on the bloc but she defended the effectiveness of the devices.

"I do think they are helpful. That is why the US is moving forward and moving forward with alacrity," she said.

Britain and the Netherlands have already said they will employ the scanners while France and Italy plan to try out the expensive devices.

Scandinavian nations and Germany and Spain have been more cautious.

But German Interior Thomas de Maiziere said there had been "some very promising tests" in the Netherlands with the scanners and Berlin could reach a decision regarding their use by the middle of the year.

"They have to be effective, not harm health and not violate privacy," he said, adding it would be better to have a joint EU decision in the long term.

"It is not a question of acting under pressure, it is a question of national and European security."

The outgoing European Commission dropped plans to introduce the scanners Europe-wide in 2008 after the European Parliament opposed the move, calling for more studies on the possible radiation dangers and privacy issues involved.

Privacy campaigners say the technology violates European law by producing sexually explicit images of the passengers.

They have raised the possibility that images taken by the scanners could be leaked online.

But Napolitano said she believed that new technologies could address many of the privacy issues raised by the use of the scanners.

EU interior ministers also discussed the possibility of sharing passenger data amongst member states and placing "sky marshals" on flights within Europe.

The bloc already shares passenger information with the United States and "sky marshals" already operate on some trans-Atlantic flights.

"Obviously, we are looking at the possibility of posting people on board (passenger flights) to maintain security," the EU's outgoing justice commissioner, Jacques Barrot, told reporters.

A 23-year-old Nigerian, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, has been accused of trying to detonate a bomb on the flight to Detroit and has been charged with the attempted murder of 290 people. He has pleaded not guilty.

Justice and Home Affairs Council