Gordon Brown looking for compliance from EU states on e-border controls

Despite EU laws allowing freedom of movement

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is asking other EU states to comply with British e-border controls.

These ask people travelling inside the the EU to submit pre-travel information to the UK's e-borders control system via security authorities.

Home Secretary Alan Johnston will attend an informal meeting with EU interior ministers asking them to enforce border controls as required by the UK's e-borders system. EU law on the subject allows much more freedom of movement between states.

Mr Brown's statement followed his announcement regarding a temporary suspension of flights between the UK and Yemen following the Detroit airliner bombing attempt.

He said the e-borders system was "a vital component of our strategy to strengthen and modernise the UK's border controls" and claimed it had already achieved significant successes enabling nearly 5,000 arrests for crimes including murder, rape and assault.

He said that by the end of the year the £1.2bn system would be able to check all passengers traveling from other countries to all major airports and ports in the UK against a watch list 24 hours prior to travel. "This will give a better picture than ever of people coming into and out of our country," he said.

He announced the watch list is being extended to produce a list of people not allowed to fly and a second, larger, list of those who should be subject to " special measures" including enhanced screening prior to boarding.

He added: "The Home Secretary is looking for swift agreement from his EU counterparts on how best to collect and process data on passenger records, including travel within the EU. He will also be keen see the European Commission's recent approval advanced passenger information transmission is enforced."

This system allows transmission of passenger information to the UK e-Borders system by carriers based in other member states.