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BRUSSELS: Among the pressing issues being discussed at the NATO summit is how to tackle Muslim militants who control vast chunks of Iraq and Syria. The United States wants to forge an international coalition, while Britain said it is actively considering arming Kurdish fighters.

Separately, the European Union is mulling over a proposal to enable European governments to track people's movements in the fight against extremism and the debate over flight passenger information sharing is on the move again.

Reports of hundreds of extremists flying to fight with groups like the Islamic State (IS) militant group - and many also returning to their home countries - has caused the EU to think about tracking where people are going via the Passenger Name Records.

Timothy Kirkhope, British Member of the European Parliament (MEP), said: "As things are, it seems to me that we have now moved from a situation where complete privacy is achievable, to one where a little bit of privacy has to be sacrificed in order to have more security. And we're now living in a world which is so dangerous and the threats are so great, that I think people - to protect themselves, their families, their friends, their community - expect the politicians to deliver on security above all else."

But there are concerns that accessing such information would be a breach of passenger privacy. Under the proposed new law, European governments would be able to access the personal flight passenger information across Europe, and it would include names, how they booked their ticket and where they are flying to and from.

It would mean that Muslim extremists would be able to be tracked across Europe, but some passengers have questioned whether this measure will be enough. One passenger said: "I wouldn't be against it. Just on the one condition that the information would be used only by authorised bodies, such as intelligence agencies or whatever."

When the topic was debated in the European Parliament, some MEPs insisted it was completely against European law. Jan Phillipp Albrecht, German MEP, said: "There are severe constitutional consequences of such a proposal. If you look at the judgements of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, that is again and again, not in line with the rule of law and human rights from article 7 and 8 from the Convention on privacy and protection of private life."

The proposal was rejected back in 2013, but amid violence intensifying across the Middle East, sacrificing passenger privacy may be seen as a necessity to tackle the problem of radical Islamists across Europe.

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EU mulls air passenger data sharing in fight against extremism