Transatlantic air travel could be thrown into chaos if European and US officials today fail to replace a deal on sharing passenger data that is set to expire, the European Commission said.
Under security measures introduced after the September 11th attacks on the United States, European airlines supply US authorities with information on passengers entering the United States - including their name, address, payment details and telephone numbers.
An EU court struck down the existing deal on a legal technicality in May but gave the European Union and the United States until September 30th to replace it.
"This would be a highly undesirable situation which could lead to certain legal chaos," the commission's justice spokesman said of the possibility that no deal would be reached today.
The United States has indicated it would deny landing authorisation to airlines that refused to send such data, he said.
In the absence of a deal, data sharing would be governed by data privacy rules in the 25 EU member states and this could spark complaints by travellers against airlines, he said.
US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff called last month for greater access to EU passenger data.
But the EU has said there was not enough time for talks on more data access at present and urged Washington to accept merely a change in how the deal was framed legally.