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 .