MEPs warn of ‘toothpaste mountains’ at EU airports[fr][de] 

In a debate on 12 January, MEPs questioned the necessity of stringent air-security rules that have been in force since last November (EurActiv 6/11/06) and criticised the chaotic manner in which they were being carried out at some airports. 

MEPs said that more than 20 tonnes of duty-free goods are confiscated each week at Frankfurt airport, as well as 1,600 litres of alcohol and perfume in Amsterdam after the Commission demanded that passengers should only take up to 100 millilitres of liquids onboard in sealed, transparent plastic bags.

The rules were drawn up following the exposure of a terrorist plot to smuggle liquid explosives onto aircrafts in London’s Heathrow airport in August last year (EurActiv 21/08/06), but passengers are still confused about which items are permitted on board. 

"Citizens don't have any way of defending themselves against the absolute power of a private individual in uniform. They just have to shut up or cancel their flight," said Spanish liberal MEP Ignasi Guardans Cambo.

And according to Austrian MEP Reinhard Rack of the centre-right EPP-ED group, this is done with no evidence as to whether the measures are actually helping to hunt down terrorists or whether they are simply a harassment for increasingly irritated passengers. "Nobody seems to know – or care – whether these rules are efficient, as no evaluation has taken place and no results of such evaluations have been published," he said. 

Commissioner Barrot said that he would undertake an evaluation of the rules, adding that he "was not happy to have to introduce these measures" and that he hoped new technologies would eventually lead to their suspension.

Barrot also said that he hoped the rules would be extended beyond EU borders in order to make them more effective.