Brussels, 16/04/2015 (Agence Europe) - At the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday 15 April, the Commissioner for Home Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, took pains to win the MEPs over regarding his approach to the forthcoming negotiations with Mexico on an agreement to transfer the data of European airline passengers.
Although head-on opposition came only from a handful of MEPs, the Commissioner did not find himself addressing an audience that was particularly enthusiastic about the idea of concluding a further PNR agreement with a third country, the MEPs having taken the EU-Canada PNR agreement to the Court of Justice of the EU in November of last year to assess its legality.
The MEPs called upon him to supply details of the substance of the discussions underway with the Mexican authorities, which have issued an initial ultimatum to the European airlines, which were facing fines (of up to $30,000 per flight operating on Mexican soil) if they did not hand over the personal data of their passengers by 1 April 2015. Mexico subsequently agreed to put this deadline back by two months, until 1 July 2015 (see EUROPE 11288).
In late March, Avramopoulos announced his intention of asking for a mandate to clarify the legal uncertainty surrounding the transfer of these data, securing in exchange the agreement of the Mexican authorities to suspend sanctions until 1 July if the EU formally entered into negotiations for an EU-Mexico PNR agreement. “The Commission needs a mandate to start discussions before 1 July”, the Greek Commissioner said on Wednesday evening, expressing his hopes that the Council will provide it with this mandate by the end of June.
But no agreement can be finalised until the Court of Justice returns its verdict on the agreement with Canada, the Greek acknowledged, promising the MEPs that the future agreement with Mexico will be fully in line with the fundamental rights and the criteria of proportionality and necessity.
However, these declarations were not enough to win over all of the MEPs. Birgit Sippel (S&D, Germany), for instance, described it as “impossible” for the Commission to be given this mandate before the Court of Justice returns its verdict on the agreement with Canada. The German MEP also pointed out that negotiations with Canada had taken five years and that the European Parliament would have the final say on this international agreement. Cornelia Ernst (GUE/NGL, Germany), agreed that it will be necessary to wait for the verdict on the agreement with Canada before starting any new procedures. “We have no evidence to justify that this instrument is properly founded”, she said, adding that Mexico was “one of the most dangerous countries in the world”. “Are we going to give this country, with its many drug traffickers, our data?”, she asked. The EPP group, for its part, called upon the Council to give the Commission its mandate as soon as possible to prevent any risk of sanctions against European airlines. (Solenn Paulic)