Eurocommissaris roept op tot kalmte na Jemenitische vliegtuigbommen (en)
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Extremely restrictive air security measures and "panic" are no solution, EU transport commissioner Siim Kallas said on Friday (5 November), in reply to Germany's calls for enhancing air cargo security following the Yemeni and Greek mail bomb attempts.
"Panic is not the remedy. We have to come up with a proportionate response and close the potential loopholes, but security can never be at 100 percent," Mr Kallas said during a press conference in Brussels, mid-way through a behind-closed-doors meeting of air security experts from EU states and the US.
The day-long expert gathering was called after two Yemeni bombs were detected in the cargo of passenger planes and after a dozen other smaller bombs of Greek origin were mailed via courrier to several embassies and EU leaders.
Germany is now spearheading calls for stricter and more harmonised cargo security rules after one of the Greek letters, sent by air mail and addressed to Chancellor Angela Merkel, was detonated by security forces in a building adjecent to her office. Berlin also halted all passenger and freight transports to Yemen, in response to the other incident.
At the request of German interior minister Thomas de Maiziere, EU home affairs ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday will discuss the issue over lunch, although no concrete proposals are expected.
An irritated Mr Kallas on Friday said he was not responsible for every institution in the EU or for what the German government was doing.
Transport ministers meeting in December will have "some recommendations" on the table following the experts' meetings and review of security arrangements, he said.
But he also warned against "extremely restrictive measures" which are always a temptation following "serious incidents" such as the Yemeni and Greek bombs.
"I am afraid that the proposed measures will be too big of a burden for companies and airports to implement. And if they are impossible to implement, it creates an even bigger [security] gap than the one we are trying to fill," he said, citing the concerns of "businesses."
With 60 percent of cargo being carried on passenger flights, safety of air cargo is also a question of passenger safety. So far, responsibility for failure to check suspicious packages falls both on airports and on freight companies such as FedEx or UPS.
Mr Kallas said the ground security in airports "trusts" known cargo companies and where there are unknown or untrustworthy companies, "all parcels must be screened 100 percent."
The Estonian politician also stressed the need to adopt any supplementary measures in co-ordination with the US, hence the presence of an American air security expert at the Friday meeting.
"At this stage we are very satisfied with the level of consultation with American authorities. Let's hope we'll have a common understanding what to do and not to introduce excessive measures based on total mistrust," he said.
As for interior ministers on Monday, EUobserver understands that the lunch discussion will be rather a brainstorming session, with ideas such as a better categorisation of potentially dangerous origin states and "more intelligent" cargo screening.
The mood is very different among member states. While Germany is set to come up with a list of five concrete proposals, Britain for instance feels that "the threat level is the same" and that it is rather other EU countries who had dropped their guard when it comes to counter-terrorist measures, EU diplomats say.