Brussels, 27/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - In plenary session in Strasbourg on Thursday 27 October, MEPs approved the draft agreement negotiated between the EU and Australia on the transfer of personal data of EU air passengers (PNR) as part of the fight against terrorism. MEPs voted by 463 votes to 96 against, with 11 abstentions, to extend the agreement, which has been in force since 2007, by a further seven years. The Council approved the Commission-negotiated agreement on 23 September.
The data that are transferred will be used to prevent terrorist offences and serious transnational crime. They will be retained by the Australian authorities for a maximum of five and a half years. During that time, the PNR data will be retained in the system for the purposes of “preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting terrorist offences or serious transnational crime”, according to a press release. After the first 3 years, all information which could be used to identify a passenger will be “depersonalised”; that is, data such as the passenger's name or her/his contact information will be masked out. After the 5 and a half years, data will be permanently deleted.
The agreement will prohibit any processing of sensitive data (such as, on racial or ethnic origin, religious beliefs, physical or mental health or sexual orientation). EU citizens will have the right to access their own PNR data and seek rectification if the information is inaccurate. Should their data be misused, air passengers will also have the right to administrative and judicial redress in Australia.
The agreement was relatively well received by MEPs, though doubts remain, particularly over the need for such an instrument, as rapporteur Sofia In't Veld (ALDE) stated at the Parliamentary committee stage. Some groups, for example, the GUE/NGL, refused to be associated with the agreement. Generally, however, MEPs felt the agreement with Australia to be much better than the one currently under negotiation with the United States, where data retention of up to 15 years is being talked about.
The European Commission is trying to soften the demands of the United States. It reported to member states, in Luxembourg on Thursday 27 October, on progress in discussions. The Commission is hoping to restrict the scope of the agreement and to limit the number of crimes it covers. It hopes, too, to win approval for having the length of time that data on European passengers are retained vary with the nature of the crimes, according to a source. This is an exercise of the highest importance since, with the coming into effect of the Lisbon Treaty, these international agreements - including the one with Canada - must be formally approved by the European Parliament in order to come into force. (SP/transl.rt)