Brussels, 11/06/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 10 June, MEPs decided in plenary to send the European PNR file (the intra-European system of passenger data transfer so as to fight against serious crime and terrorism) back to the civil liberties committee (LIBE). However, the LIBE committee rejected the implementation of this system by five votes at the end of April. On Monday, MEPs agreed through a fresh vote to give this draft a second chance. According to the draft's critics in the LIBE committee, it lacked both justification and sufficient guarantees for the data protection of European citizens. The rapporteur for the PNR file, Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, UK), welcomed the fact that the European Parliament had “rescued” the file. Initially it had been a question of putting to the vote this Wednesday the decision to reject the file made by the committee on 24 April, but Kirkhope was able to convince the plenary on Monday to send it back to the LIBE committee, he was delighted to report in a press release.
“We don't see why it's necessary to go back to committee again. We should have voted in plenary and confirmed the committee's vote. We don't understand the position of the liberals and some social-democrats, including Hannes Swoboda, who voted for it to be sent back to committee. It's very bizarre” said Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the leader of the European Parliament's Greens/EFA Group, at a press conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday 11 June. (SP/transl.fl)