Brussels, 12/02/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to a report by the AFP, the US explained to the Congress of government officials on Wednesday 11 February that the US wanted the European Union to develop its own airline Passenger Name Record, to improve the security of its own borders.
Addressing the Committee of the House of Representatives, Francis X. Taylor, the under secretary of state to the US minister for home security, explained, “we are hoping that the European Parliament will move towards adopting the European Passenger Name Record”. He added that this would be “a big step” and that if a European PNR were not forthcoming, the US would shift to data sharing agreements with each of the European countries.
On Wednesday, the European Parliament made a commitment in a joint resolution supported by the five political groups (EPP, S&D, ECR, ALDE and the EFDD) to do everything to get the European Passenger Name Record adopted by the end of the year.
The US already has a PNR agreement with the EU, which contains conditions on authorisations for European airlines operating on US soil. The US would like to obtain more information from the Europeans for their own databases, so that they can more effectively identify individuals that are likely to commit terrorist attacks, added the AFP.
The Europeans and the US had further talks on antiterrorism cooperation in Riga on 4-5 February during an informal session. They also had more discussions about cooperation with Europol. The US would like to step up its participation in certain mechanisms, as well as in border management or the global data protection or Safe Harbour agreement. Although a number of questions regarding these two latter aspects are still pending, the US confirmed to their counterparts that they were preparing a law that would give European citizens the same opportunities for legal appeals as those enjoyed by US citizens. (Solenn Paulic)