Portugal’s government approved a data sharing agreement with the US on terrorist suspects that is now to be submitted to parliament.

The cabinet approved the anti-terrorist information agreement regarding air passengers, which was signed in Washington DC on 24 July, at its regular meeting on Thursday.

In a statement, it said that the accord, if applied, will mean Portuguese citizens can continue to be exempt from US visa requirements for stays of up to 30 days. All European Union states are signatories of the visa-exemption scheme, but not all have signed up to a data sharing accord.

The accord foresees the future sharing of information “only for the purposes of prevention and combat of terrorism and infractions related to terrorism as defined in the domestic law of each of the countries and in international law that applies,” according to the cabinet statement.