Brussels, 04/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - On Wednesday evening 4 February, European Parliament rapporteurs and Commission Representatives were still attempting to defuse the European PNR dossier, as part of an informal working meeting organised by the rapporteur on this issue, Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, United Kingdom). They were particularly trying to reach an agreement on resuming the legislative discussions at the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE), which have been blocked since the middle of 2013.
The French Home Secretary, Bernard Cazeneuve, also came that day to meet LIBE coordinators, in an effort to convince them to unblock this project, which was presented in February 2011 and which seeks to create a comprehensive European airline passenger data file and to get it adopted as soon as possible. The Minister considered that the discussion had been constructive and had provided some clarification, particularly on the relevance of such a mechanism and which could be used to complement signals on Jihadist movements, already possible within the Schengen Information System. The PNR could help to highlight certain periods of behavioural patterns, for example, by listing the kinds of destinations, the people travelling and suspect individuals etc. During a press briefing, the French Minister also said that he was prepared to hold discussions with MEPs about data retention modes and the period of time used to maintain them and in this connection draw on the “recent rulings from the European Court of Justice”. On 8 April, the Court quashed the “telecommunications data retention” directive of 2006 because it breached fundamental rights. It would appear that Bernard Cazeneuve was unable to unblock the dossier on his own and indicated that this was a process in the negotiations and that “everyone has their own starting point”. Cazeneuve said that every minute counted and that in “high risk” situations, it would be a problem if they were not “totally efficient in the fight against terrorism”.
EP resolutions next week
So far, despite the promises made by both the European Commission and European Council, to take into account European Parliament concerns involving the intrusive and massive nature of the passenger data retention project, the situation still appears blocked, “and we still do not see how we can find a way out”, explained one source. So far, the European Commission and Council are refusing to amend the initial 2011 proposal upon which the Council also spoke in 2012 and several MEPs from ALDE and Greens/EFA are unwilling to envisage using a text that they rejected in 2013. The S&D and ALDE groups also very divided, particularly between the French MEPs who are anxious to ratify this mechanism and the other factions that are particularly sensitive about the question of protecting personal data. On Wednesday morning, the German MEP from the Greens/EFA Jan Philipp Albrecht said obtaining progress, in exchange for reform of the European personal data protection rules is not an option in the negotiations either because “ultimately we still do not want to accept a text (on the PNR) which we consider illegal”. Together with his French and Dutch colleagues Eva Joly and Judith Sargentini, he explained that he was not, in theory, against monitoring the collection of passenger data… On the condition that this was carried out on 500 to 5,000 people deemed suspect according to the data provided by the member states and organisations such as Europol. A draft resolution including their ideas will be discussed next week in Strasbourg. The EP is also preparing a resolution on the vote and majorities obtained, which “will undoubtedly be a test for deciding on what follow-up should be taken in this dossier”, explained one source. (SP)