Brussels, 25/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - With the British rapporteur from the ECR group in charge of the dossier, Timothy Kirkhope, deciding to postpone the deadline for submitting amendments to his revised report on the European PNR until 1 April, European regulators meeting up at the Article 29 Group have written to the EP Civil Liberties Committee and its president, Claude Moraes (S&D, United Kingdom), to answer a number of their questions.
Although the Article 29 working group has given a warm welcome to the amendments introduced by the Conservative rapporteur, it also highlights a number of grey areas requiring clarification and particularly highlights the fact that the necessity of this European airline passenger data file for tackling terrorism and serious crime still needs to be proved. European regulators have identified improvements in Kirkhope's report in terms of personal data protection but call on the rapporteur and the LIBE committee to provide a number of clarifications. The regulatory authorities therefore want to know why the Schengen Information System (which is also being beefed up at an external border control level) and the Advance Passenger Information (API) data collection system (on name/forename, biometric data, date of birth, nationality, passport number and gender but not the class of reservation or credit card) is not enough to fulfil this objective of fighting this kind of crime.
The group explains that a more accurate form of argument with proof is still lacking at this stage and it would like further clarification on the reasons why a less intrusive alternative to the PNR data collection system cannot be envisaged. The regulators also want very concrete elements to be provided regarding the level of success in collecting PNR data, with detailed examples that could be used in consideration. The Article 29 Group also says that the number of crimes covered by the European PNR system should be reduced (it covers, as well as terrorism, the trafficking in human beings, child pornography and arms trafficking). The regulatory authorities also believe that given the extension of the European PNR system to intra-European flights, certain proportionality criteria should be introduced. The data collection system should therefore be restricted to a specific period of time or particular geographical zone and a specific spectrum of people likely to be involved in the infringements covered by the proposal.
The president of the Article 29 Group, Isabelle Falque-Pierrotin, said that its other demands include system evaluation and possible revision after two years of its entry into force and not five years, as suggested by the rapporteur. (Solenn Paulic)