BRUSSELS -- A senior U.S. homeland security official met Wednesday with European Union officials to discuss a likely expansion of a ban on carry-on laptops and electronic devices on U.S.-bound flights, after President Donald Trump disclosed highly classified intelligence to Russia about a laptop-related terrorism plot.
The probable expansion of the ban, which was imposed in March on flights to the United States from 10 mostly Middle Eastern airports, has raised concerns in Europe that it would disrupt travel and have little security payoff. Although a final decision has not been made, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security has said that an expansion of the ban to flights originating in Europe is likely.
European officials say they received little advance notice of a possible expansion before news reports surfaced last week. Deputy Homeland Security Secretary Elaine Duke met Wednesday with Dimitris Avramopoulos and Violeta Bulc, the top EU officials in charge of migration and transportation. The meeting came at the request of the EU.
"There's been concern about flights," European Commission spokesman Enrico Brivio said Wednesday ahead of the meeting. The officials were gathering "to carry out a threat assessment and work out how to address any threats."
"Any threats that affect the U.S. are the same for Europe. So information should be shared. We explained that. And our response should be one in common," Brivio said, voicing European concerns that the United States was about to take unilateral action.
An official who followed the talks said the ban was "off the table" for now. He spoke on condition of anonymity to release details of the negotiations.
They also shared details about their aviation security standards and detection capabilities, and agreed to meet again in Washington next week "to further assess shared risks and solutions for protecting airline passengers, whilst ensuring the smooth functioning of global air travel," according to a joint statement.
The ban took on new political overtones this week after it was reported that Trump disclosed classified information to Russia's top diplomat about a plot to sneak bombs onto planes in laptop computers. The intelligence came from a U.S. partner and was considered so sensitive that it was distributed among only a small circle within the U.S. government and withheld from broader sharing among English-speaking allies that U.S. intelligence agencies do as a matter of course.
The broad topic of a bomb threat was less sensitive than the specific intelligence, which contained information from its context that could jeopardize the intelligence-gathering abilities of the U.S. ally. Administration officials have insisted that Trump did nothing wrong in the disclosure, but they also requested that The Washington Post not publish specific aspects of the intelligence. And one White House official alerted the head of the National Security Agency and the CIA to warn them that the intelligence had been disclosed.
A laptop ban has drawn skepticism from transportation and security groups in Europe.
The European Aviation Safety Agency, the EU counterpart to the Federal Aviation Administration, counseled in April the exact opposite of the U.S. proposal, telling airlines that personal electronic devices "should preferably be carried in the passenger cabin" so that flight attendants could more easily address fires if lithium-ion batteries combust. The agency declined to comment Wednesday but said last month's guidance was still valid.
Some European officials also have questioned whether a laptop stowed in checked baggage is any less likely to contain a bomb, although the amount of explosives needed to cause significant damage would be less inside the relatively open plane cabin than in the tightly packed baggage hold.
Industry groups worry about the economic consequences of expanding the ban to more flights. The head of the International Air Transport Association on Tuesday expressed serious concerns about the ban and urged leaders to consider other enhanced screening methods as an alternative.
Expanding the ban could cost $1.1 billion a year in lost productivity, travel time and "passenger well-being," Alexandre de Juniac, director general and CEO of the group, which represents 265 airlines, wrote in a letter to Bulc and U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security John Kelly. He said there is a risk that businesses will cancel travel rather than risk losing confidential data that might be compromised if executives are forced to check their laptops.
While the current ban affects travelers on roughly 350 flights per week, an expansion could affect 390 flights per day, de Juniac wrote.
"IATA fully acknowledges that security remains the primary responsibility of States, and we understand that the US, the UK and other States have compelling reasons to mandate the implementation of counter-measures in response to credible threat intelligence," he wrote.
De Juniac suggested expanded random explosives screenings inside airports, which he said would improve security but would be less disruptive. Other possibilities include deploying more specially trained security officers and explosives-detecting dogs.
The initial ban has hit Middle Eastern airlines hardest. Emirates, the Middle East's largest airline, this month cited the ban as one of the reasons for an 80 percent drop in profits last year. It said the ban had a direct impact on demand for air travel into the U.S. and it faced rising costs from introducing complimentary laptop loans to some passengers.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael Birnbaum, Lori Aratani and Annabell Van den Berghe of The Washington Post and by Lorne Cook, Lori Hinnant and Ken Guggenheim of The Associated Press.
A Section on 05/18/2017
