From the continent that brought you „Ihre Ausweis, Bitte”

Some background:

The agreement also calls for U.S. carriers to share information about their passengers with European Union countries.

Under the terms of the deal, U.S. airlines would pass along information about each passenger such as name, date of birth, address and phone number to the European country of destination.

The agreement contains no changes from one that was brokered last December [2003]

Just what array of Euro-agencies and states received the information is not clear, but there are likely (as usual) a bunch of them, making the data provided by the US to be at much greater risk than the other way around. Of course to even get to the point where they would share any information, the usual interminable kabuki had to take place - Two years of negotiation with an equally random collection of national governments and Euro-agencies, quangos, and what-nots.

It has the usual stench of the petty emperor, a border guard seeking a bribe, an little display of strength by a weakling... The sudden ruling shows a selective use of the stellar rapidity that they’re known for.