Brussels, 27/03/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission only has a few days to find a solution to the request of the Mexican authorities to obtain passenger name record (PNR) data from European airlines operating in Mexico otherwise, from 1 April, it could incur penalties of up to €30,000.
In early March Spain expressed concern about this ultimatum (the Argentine authorities also sent a similar request to the EU) and asked for the issue to be brought up at the JHA Council on 12 March. In addition, Sophie in 't Veld MEP (ALDE, the Netherlands) sent a letter to European Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos on 9 March asking him for details of the PNR data collection planned by the Mexican authorities from 1 April for airlines operating on Mexican soil. “As no international agreement exists between the EU and Mexico, this transfer of air passenger data could be illegal”, In 't Veld warned, who has not yet received a reply to her questions. “We have no idea what will happen on 1 April”, says a European Parliament source, reiterating that without an agreement between the EU and Mexico, European airlines will be breaching EU law if they transmit their passengers' data from 1 April. “It's an impossible situation for the airlines”, this source continues.
When contacted on Friday, Avramopoulos' staff remained vague about how the issue was developing, simply saying that “we are not yet at 1 April and the discussions are still ongoing”. Mexico adopted legislation demanding PNR data from airlines operating on its soil in 2012 and has already postponed the demand three times that it imposed on European air carriers. Madrid has asked for an urgent response to be found to the issue. The procedure for making this data transfer to Mexico legal would involve the Commission making a decision on adequacy, a source states. Such a decision would guarantee that the standards of personal data protection are equivalent to those applied in the EU. However, the decision cannot be taken easily without a prior legal framework, such as an agreement similar to those negotiated between the EU and Canada, the US and Australia. (Solenn Paulic)