The most controversial of his plans calls for member nations to adopt EU-wide airline security measures similar to those used by the United States, storing extensive data on passengers that will be retained for 13 years.

Under the plan, airlines would have to give so-called Passenger Name Record data to national policing authorities before the scheduled flights for assessment of the potential risk of those flying into the EU or leaving it.

The data passenger profile would be retained for five years, then be in a "dormant" database a further eight years before deletion.

Authorities from member states could use the data to question and deny entry to people whom they deem a terror risk, Frattini said.