EU steps up airline security
Tough new airline and airport security measures have been agreed throughout Europe in the wake of the terrorist atrocities in America.
EU transport ministers meeting in Brussels are stepping up security controls to make it compulsory to screen every piece of hold baggage loaded on board a plane in any airport in the 15 member states - something many believed was routine already.
But the horror of the hijackings of September 11 glaringly exposed loopholes in national safety checks in some countries - loopholes the meeting was aimed to close.
The comprehensive baggage screening will be brought in by the end of 2002, giving many airport authorities time to acquire the necessary screening equipment.
But other measures approved must come into force within a month - including the introduction of "security restricted areas" in all airports, background security checks on all airport and airline staff covering the previous five years before their employment in jobs with access to restricted areas, and routine X-ray screening of air crew.
Where necessary, airport buildings will have to be adapted to provide more secure divisions between passengers, air terminal visitors and access "airside".
A UK government spokesman says all the measures were already in force under national British security requirements, but safety could be improved if all other European airlines and airports were subject to the same standard of checking.
