The European Union's top justice official wants a log kept of all non-EU citizens entering and leaving the 27-nation union as part of a raft of new anti-terror measures, according to AP. EU Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Franco Frattini said Monday he would include the register in proposals he presents next month to member states. Non-EU nationals would be electronically registered with biometric identifiers under the plan, Frattini said at a meeting in Portugal of EU ministers in charge of policing. The register is «extremely necessary» in order to crack down on people who are granted permission to stay for a restricted time but melt away when the period expires, he said. The scheme would operate alongside an airline passenger data recording system modeled on one developed by the United States, which Frattini has said he also plans to unveil in November. Officials said they are still debating whether to adopt the system for flights within EU as well as those to and from countries outside the union. The measures are part of the EU's planned technological crackdown on terrorist activities. Other measures include a plan to set up a database to provide an early-warning system on lost or stolen explosives, and new provisions to deal with the misuse of the Internet by terrorists, Frattini said.
