On 22 November 2005 the Advocate General of the European Court of Justice has advised to annul the EU-US agreement on the transfer of passenger data. The AG does not answer the privacy-questions raised by the European Parliament, but finds the agreement unacceptable under the subsidiarity rule of the European Union. Only the member states should decide on these matters, not the European Commission.

US Customs have had access to the passenger lists of Europeans flying to the US since May 2004. European commissioner Frattini promised to send the European Parliament an evaluation in May 2005, but nothing has surfaced yet.

The full court ruling will follow early in 2006. The court might still come up with a ruling that addresses the privacy-issue.

The court press release (available in different languages)
http://curia.eu.int/fr/actu/communiques/index.htm

Full-text of the opinion (in French, 22.11.2005)
http://www.statewatch.org/news/2005/nov/eu-us-pnr-ecj-ag-text.pdf

Advocate general backs Parliament challenge on passenger records (22.11.2005) http://www.euractiv.com/Article?tcmuri=tcm:29-149486-16&type=News