[JURIST] US and European negotiators reached an interim agreement Wednesday on how trans-Atlantic airline passenger data-sharing [JURIST news archive] will be conducted, essentially modifying and renewing an existing interim agreement [JURIST report] which is set to expire at the end of July. According to German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble [official website, in German], the new agreement will reduce the current 34 pieces of passenger data to around 20 pieces of information, but will allow US Customs and Border Protection [official website] to hold the data for a longer period of time.

The new temporary agreement, which must be approved by all 27 EU member states, will allow US and EU negotiators to continue to work towards a permanent arrangement. Last May, the European Court of Justice struck down [JURIST report] an agreement [PDF text] between US the EU, finding that the European Commission's finding [decision, PDF] that the US had adequate security measures to protect the data was without legal basis. AP has more.