One year after the Sept. 11 strikes on the United States, the European Union is set to clinch a deal on stricter security measures for airports and aircraft, EU officials said tonight.
Last year's attacks prompted the EU to draft a bill requiring the aviation industry to increase security. But adopting the bill proved harder than expected due to quarreling between governments and the European Parliament.
EU sources said representatives of member states and parliament reached a last-minute compromise deal on the new measures at an informal meeting today. This should pave the way to formal adoption of the legislation on Sept. 19.
"It is 99 percent a done deal," an EU official close to the negotiations told Reuters.
The planned measures include tighter screening of passengers and luggage and the introduction of improved equipment. The moves are likely to place additional financial burden on the struggling aviation industry.
For the first time in Europe, checked luggage would be fully screened. This comes on top of the routine screening of cabin luggage.
One sticking point was the screening of aviation personnel. The EU assembly had insisted personnel should be fully screened whenever entering security restricted areas. Member states said this would slow down airport operations and would be extremely costly.
EU sources said legislators solved the deadlock by agreeing to screen personnel only when entering "critical parts" of security-restricted areas, which will be defined by member states and at a later stage by the EU executive Commission.
The EU assembly had wanted member states to engage in a comprehensive policy to finance airport security or offer a one-off financial support to the industry.
Legislators agreed to postpone a decision on financing until the Commission has produced a study on possible ways to finance the costs of additional security measures.
In the United States, $1.5 billion was allocated to airports after the Sept. 11 attacks, industry sources said.
The new measures are expected to come into force at the end of 2002. Screening of all staff on airports should start within a year of the entry into force of the regulation.