EU Civil Liberties Committee rejects PNR proposal

A European Commission proposal to allow the use of EU air passenger name record (PNR) data in investigating serious crime and terrorist offences was rejected by Civil Liberties Committee MEPs last week, by 30 votes to 25.

Air carriers collect PNR data from passengers during reservation and check-in procedures for flights entering or leaving the EU. It includes the passenger’s name, address, phone number and credit card details. The Commission proposed in February 2011 to oblige air carriers to provide EU countries with the data of passengers entering or leaving the EU, for use in preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting serious crime and terrorist offences.

This would complement the system currently in place for the US, Canada and Australia, which require EU air carriers to make PNR data available for all persons who fly to and from these countries.

The Commission's proposal was aimed at creating a coherent EU wide system which ensures close cooperation between law enforcement authorities within the EU. It would also harmonise the national systems in order to avoid the creation of up to 27 considerably diverging systems. This could result in uneven levels of protection of personal data across the EU, security gaps, increased costs, and legal uncertainty for passengers and carriers, said the Commission.

After the committee vote, rapporteur Timothy Kirkhope of the UK and other MEPs expressed concern about its possible consequences for EU counter-terrorism policy. They also asked that the matter be referred to the full House. Other MEPs welcomed the vote and said that the Commission should come up with a new proposal.

The chair of the Civil Liberties Committee, Juan Fernando López Aguilar, has proposed that the matter be put to Parliament’s Conference of Presidents (EP and political group presidents) in order to decide how to proceed.

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