European Union laws guaranteeing freedom of movement and personal data will prevent a £1.2 billion Government plan to institute anti-terror security measures on routes into this country from the Continent, it has been revealed.

The shocking news, contained in an announcement from the Eurostar train service, means that all the tax money already spent on putting the much vaunted ‘e-Border’ scheme, due to take effect at the end of next year, has been wasted.

The worst of it is that the EU laws in question are not new, and would have been known to the bungling Government at the time the scheme was announced in 2005.

Proudly launched in 2005 by then Home Secretary David Blunkett, the ‘e-Borders’ scheme was supposed to be an early warning system for immigration officials.

According to the plan, airlines, rail and ferry carriers would record eight pieces of information held on a person’s passport, including their full name, date of birth, nationality and passport number.

This data, taken when a ticket is bought, would then be checked against crime, terror and immigration databases at least 24 hours before a journey was due to take place. Eurostar’s director Seth Williams has said that these rules breach EU laws.

“We believe e-Borders is not compatible with French and Belgian law,” Mr Williams said. “We would never ask our employees to do something that would put them at risk of arrest or imprisonment, and until this is sorted out we cannot comply with it.”

The Chamber of Shipping, which represents 140 UK ferry operators that carry 20 million passengers into Britain each year, has also told the Home Office that European law makes it impossible for them to implement the scheme.

Article 78 of the French Code of Penal Procedure states that commercial companies cannot collect and store data from state documents, such as passports.

In addition, the European Commission has announced that the scheme breaches EU law guaranteeing the free movement of its citizens. A letter directed to the British government from Ernesto Bianchi, acting head of the EC’s General Justice, Freedom and Security Directorate, has pointed out that it is illegal to ask passengers for anything other than their passport.

More than 30 million people visit Britain from Europe each year. Three quarters of all terror plots in Britain have their origins in Pakistan, and one of the failed London train bombers was arrested in Italy after having fled via Eurostar.

It now seems that attempts by this country to enforce its own border controls are illegal in terms of its EU membership. This is proof yet again, as if any was needed, that not even the present Government fully understands the implications of continued membership of the EU, never mind the even more stringent controls created by the Lisbon Treaty.