Brussels, 07/02/2012 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 7 February, the European Commission warned that the European Union had no room for manoevure to renegotiate the PNR anti-terrorism deal (transfer of personal information to the US authorities about passengers from the EU travelling to the US).
At a press conference in Brussels, EU Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said that if the European Parliament rejected the PNR deal, then that left no room for manœuvre with the US, adding that the US would therefore have to go along with the Commission's suggestions: “Take it or leave it.”
Sophie In't Veld (ALDE, the Netherlands), EP rapporteur on the EU-US PNR deal, is recommending that the deal be rejected (see EUROPE 10544). The EP will decide on the matter in April. The draft report sets out 11 criticisms that the rapporteur says justify rejection of the deal, but the draft report has not yet been endorsed by the EP's civil liberties committee. Malmstrom (who is in the same political party as In't Veld) said that she disagreed with the rapporteur's comments that the new draft deal is worse than before, because there were improvements in every paragraph. She added that it was now up to the European Parliament to exercise its responsibilities. The deal negotiated by Malmstrom with Washington in 2010 states that the personal information provided by airlines to the United States will solely be used for counter-terror and counter-international crime purposes. PNR is the name given to information provided by passengers to airlines when reserving, paying for and checking in to flights. (LC/transl.fl)