Brussels, 02/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - According to an ALDE press release, the Liberals and Democrats at the European Parliament have tabled a number of amendments to the draft proposal for a passenger name record (PNR) system by Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, United Kingdom) on information sharing among member states.
With the deadline for submitting amendments set for the evening of 1 April, the Liberals and Democrats highlighted the need for compulsory information sharing between the relevant services in member states and a proactive approach on the question. They said that, if this was not forthcoming, the project for collecting European airline passenger data would be ineffective.
Sophie In't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands) said: “Collecting data without sharing information is pointless and does not contribute to improve citizens' security in the European Union. We need to drastically improve information sharing between authorities from the member states. In too many cases we found out after the attack that information was available, but had not been shared. We need uniform standards and safeguards to enable information sharing on the one hand, and to ensure an equal level of protection of citizens' rights throughout the territory of the EU on the other”.
ALDE says that it is fully committed to concluding the procedure for an EU PNR system by the end of the year but said too, that it expected progress from the Commission and the Council on the proportionality of the draft directive and from the Council on pushing forward with work on reforming European personal data protection rules. (Solenn Paulic)