EU Parliament Challenges Liquid Ban on Flights

The European Parliament called on Wednesday for a review of regulations that ban airline passengers from carrying liquids past airport security checkpoints to bring on board.

The assembly adopted a resolution calling on the executive European Commission to study the rules and repeal them if "no further conclusive facts are brought forward" about their impact on preventing terrorist attacks.

The EU since has limited air passengers to carrying small containers of liquids or gels in sealed plastic bags on board after British authorities last year said they had foiled an attempt to blow up aircraft using liquid explosives.

But duty-free items bought at airports outside the EU became a casualty of the new rules.

Passengers who bought whisky or other liquids outside Europe and carried them as hand luggage had to give them up when changing planes in the EU, even though the items would have been purchased after security checkpoints in the departure country.

The European Commission said in July it would apply new measures to allow passengers to keep such products if purchased in countries with security standards that match those of the 27-nation EU.

The resolution expressed lawmakers' concern that "the costs engendered by the regulation may not be proportionate to the added value achieved by additional security provisions", the assembly said in a statement.

The resolution is non-binding and does not oblige the Commission to review the rules. Parliament members cited complaints from citizens about inconvenience and the cost of buying bottled drinks behind security checkpoints as reasons to look at the rules again.