Airport controls

6.3.2014

Question for written answer E-002645-14
to the Commission
Rule 117
Antolín Sánchez Presedo (S&D)

Users of air transport complain of different practices they have to put up with at airport controls in the course of their journeys across the EU. These complaints refer, among others, to procedures at A Coruña and Vigo airports in Spain and the airports of Helsinki in Finland, Copenhagen in Denmark, Heathrow in the UK and Brussels in Belgium.

Passengers have asked whether any justification exists for differences in the clothing and footwear they have to remove, how baggage is checked, how they are frisked or body searches are carried out by security staff, and whether these latter functions ought to be carried out by law enforcement officers with proper guarantees.

1. Does the Commission consider that European airports comply in a harmonised manner with EU regulations on airport controls?

2. Could the Commission say how many complaints of degrading treatment or abuse of authority have been made in relation to airport control procedures in the EU over the past seven years and what the consequences have been?

3. Does the Commission consider that passengers should receive greater protection in the present airport control system?

4. Does the Commission intend to adopt any measures to stop airline passengers from having to submit to pointless security controls at their connections for flights within the Schengen area?

5. Could the Commission say what a passenger can do when he or she is faced with such a situation?

OJ C 355, 08/10/2014