MEPs on the European Parliament Civil Liberties committee are expected to adopt tomorrow their opinion for a report on aviation security, with reference to ‘naked’ body scanners in particular. The European Commission is considering putting forward an EU-wide legal framework on the use of body scanners at EU airports within the next year or two.

A number of EU countries have been trialling naked and other body scanners, in the UK at Manchester and Heathrow airports.

Liberal Democrat European justice & human rights spokeswoman Sarah Ludford MEP said: “If body scanners are going to be approved as screening methods at EU airports, it is absolutely essential that we put in place EU-level rules to protect privacy and human dignity and prevent storage of intrusive images. There cannot be a situation of confusion where every body scanner in the EU is subject to different rules.”

“The latest advances in body scanner technology mean that newer machines produce a gender-neutral ‘stick figure’ image instead of an actual ‘naked body’ image. The best solution would be to phase out ‘nude’ body scanners and install the more modern ones quickly.”

“In addition, since the European Commission advises that a full manual search can provide equivalent security to a body scan, passengers should be allowed to choose a pat-down if they prefer.”