EU postpones decision on liquids on planes

BRUSSELS - Travellers on European flights will need to take their laptops out of their bags at screening in airports but it is not yet decided whether toothpaste and drinks will be banned, the European Commission said today.

EU security experts met to make recommendations after Britain said last month it had foiled a plot to blow up US-bound transatlantic airliners. Officials said the plot involved homemade liquid explosives.

The experts postponed any decision on banning liquids to have more time to work on the efficiency of screening liquids and on the disturbances caused by any ban, but a final decision would come swiftly, the European Commission said in a statement.

"Considerable progress was made on the contents of a rulemaking aimed at controlling the movement of liquids through the screening checkpoints in order to mitigate the threat of liquid explosives," the statement said.

The final decision on liquids would be taken after further technical advice and a meeting of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) on Sept. 11-15 in Montreal.

The experts decided on "a uniform requirement to screen complex electronic equipment, including portable computers, separately, in order to increase the ability of screeners to detect capability of concealed dangerous items," the statement said.

A European Commission spokesman said the new procedures on screening checkpoints had to be rubber-stamped by the EU executive but that there was no reason to believe they would not follow the experts' decision.

The experts also agreed in principle on parameters for common European standards on higher performance screening equipment, the EU executive said in its statement.

Airport screening in mainland Europe is largely the same as it was before Aug 10, except for US- and British-bound flights on which liquids have been forbidden.

But Britain's announcement of the transatlantic airliner bombing plot prompted discussion about the need for EU-wide security action.

Stephen Hogan, a spokesman for airports group ACI Europe, said the EU was definitely moving towards a ban on liquids. "But it remains to be decided what exemptions can be introduced."

The airline industry, keen to prevent expensive flight delays, has urged the EU to allow a certain amount of liquids per passenger and said security costs should be borne by states.

"We are hoping for a realistic solution allowing passengers to carry enough liquids for an overnight stay," Francoise Humbert, spokeswoman for the Association of European Airlines told Reuters on Thursday.

That would mean carrying up to 150 millilitres of liquid, the equivalent of a tube of toothpaste and two small items, Humbert said.

- REUTERS