EUROPEAN AND American authorities took steps yesterday to tighten air cargo security in the wake of attempted bomb attacks by Yemeni and Greek extremists.
EU justice ministers gave an ad hoc group a three-week deadline to come up with proposals on security, while the US adopted measures barring “high-risk cargo” and toner and ink cartridges weighing more than 16 ounces.
Belgian interior minister Annamie Turtelboom, who chaired the meeting as part of her country’s rotating presidency, said there was “no agreement” to blacklist cargo coming from any high-risk countries.
“We’ve talked about risk analysis. In a certain moment you can say you must check every package that’s coming from a certain country but at this moment there’s no agreement to say that’s a blacklist.”
The ad hoc group would work with transport and foreign affairs experts to improve security in both EU and non-EU airports and in air transit zones, she said.
“We’re also going to see how we can help airports in non-EU countries, so that we can give them a checklist, a sort of risk analysis which we would use to determine which airports would qualify as clean airports or unclean, that is unsecure, airports.”
Minister for Justice Dermot Ahern said he did not believe the EU initiative would lead the Government to adopt stricter measures as the Irish authorities were already implementing strict international rules on air cargo security.