DHS DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON'S MEETING WITH EU

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 BRUSSELS 004515

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/12/2015
TAGS: PREL SMIG PTER CVIS EAIR EUN USEU BRUSSELS
SUBJECT: DHS DEPUTY SECRETARY JACKSON'S MEETING WITH EU
COUNTER-TERRORISM COORDINATOR GIJS DE VRIES, DECEMBER 7,
2005

Classified By: PRMOFF MARC J. MEZNAR. REASONS 1.4(B) AND (D).


1. (C) Summary: DHS Deputy Secretary Michael P. Jackson met
with the EU's Counter-Terrorism Coordinator Gijs de Vries on
December 7 and discussed a wide-ranging list of terrorism
related topics. These issues included the status of the PNR
litigation, the International Registered Traveler program,
data retention, lost and stolen passports, visa waiver
program, consequence management and implications of the
spread of avian flu. End Summary.


2. (U) Other USG participants included: Dennis Sequeira, DHS
Director for Europe, Office of International Affairs; Cynthia
Bergman, DHS Deputy Assistant Secretary, Office of Public
Affairs; Michael McKinley, USEU Charge d'Affaires; Mark
Richard, DOJ Liaison Officer, USEU; Marc Meznar, Migration
Affairs Officer, USEU. Other EU officials included:
Jonathan Sweet, JHA Counselor, UK Presidency; Gerhard
Zielger, Minister for JHA Issues, incoming-Austrian
Presidency; Martin Weiss, incoming-Austrian Presidency;
Elizabeth Altekoster, Transport and Information Society, EU
Council; Elizabeta Pietrobon, CT issues with the U.S., EU
Council; Patrick Sprunt, Principal Advisor, EU Council;
Gilles de Kerchove, Director for Police, Customs and Judicial
Cooperation, EU Council.


3. (C) De Vries opened the meeting by stating that the Member
States still retained critical functions in fighting
terrorism although the Commission's role in this field has
been expanding. He spoke very favorably about the Policy
Dialogue on Border and Transportation Security and believes
it helps to avoid misunderstandings and surprises. He ended
his opening remarks by indicating that the visa questioned
needs to be managed and that it is very sensitive one because
of the reciprocity requirement within the EU.


4. (C) DepSec Jackson inquired about the likely PNR decision
and de Vries indicated that it was hard to speculate about
the court,s possible judgment. He said that while the
Advocate General (AG) was critical of the Parliament, that
the institution could not be taken for granted. Nor could
the dismissal of the data privacy concerns by the AG minimize
the high level of concern within the EU public about the
issue. In this regard, comments by the U.S. concerning how
we treat the data with great sensitivity to the issue of
privacy can, in his opinion, go a long way in allaying
community fears concerning possible abuse of their data. The
DepSec indicated that DHS takes data privacy concerns very
seriously and noted that DHS has recently set up a group of
experts to review the entire PNR program.


5. (C) DepSec Jackson briefed de Vries on the Secure Flight
Program and said that DHS will soon issue a public document
on how the program will operate. He said they are also
working on both a domestic and international registered
traveler program. In the former setting it will be run by
the private sector operating under DHS standards. Volunteers
travelers will have the opportunity to enroll and after going
through an initial background check, successful persons will
travel more freely than at the present time. The DepSec
stressed that the private companies will not have access to
PNR data. DeVries indicated that the EU is constantly trying
to balance greater sharing of data with data privacy concerns.


6. (C) Regarding the handling of PNR data, deVries suggested
that the issue has been largely resolved in his judgment and
the recent audit confirmed that the safeguards are working.
Ziegler indicated that there are other models for sharing
information and cited the Pruim agreement among several of
the Member States. (Note: That agreement has yet to be
endorsed by the participating parliaments. End Note.)


7. (C) The DepSec raised the issue of lost and stolen
passports and endorsed the upcoming meeting in Lyon. He
favored full and timely disclosures to Interpol and noted
that the database is not being used at the border and that
this situation had to be addressed. However, both he and de
Vries expressed optimism that the issue could be resolved
noting their shared vision of how the database should be used.


8. (C) De Vries raised the subject of the visa waiver program
and described it as an exercise in risk management. DepSec
Jackson acknowledged President Bush,s commitment to road
maps aimed at expanding the visa waiver program to all the EU
members and indicated that in this regard DHS intends to
review the road map criteria. He also indicated that the
U.S. and the EU should move together to return people to
their countries of origin more quickly. Jackson stressed
that he considered the VWP issue essentially a bilateral one.


9. (C) DeVries raised the issue of consequence management
which he stated requires a close exchange of information
among Member States. He indicated that the Commission would
shortly be issuing a paper on consequence management. DepSec
Jackson said he would support the sharing of best practices
in this area. The last issue raised was the anticipated
response to a possible Avian Flu crisis. The DepSec pointed
out that in the event of a crisis in this area the entry and
exit issues would be quite difficult and complex. He
strongly urged that we not wait for the flu virus to occur
before considering the issues. He further indicated that we
should be developing models to guide our actions and
indicated that this topic alone requires extensive
discussion, especially as it relates to airplane flights. De
Vries acknowledged that a recent tabletop exercise in crisis
management showed an extremely chaotic situation within the
EU in terms of crisis management which had to be remedied.

(DHS DepSec Jackson has cleared this message.)

McKINLEY
.