Brussels, 14/04/2016 (Agence Europe) - After five years of reflection and many and varied dramatic moments, starting with the flat-out rejection of the MEPs of the committee on civil liberties in 2013, the members of the European Parliament, in Strasbourg on Thursday 14 April, ultimately gave the green light to the proposed directive on the use of airline passengers' data, known as PNR data, with a view to preventing terrorist attacks, amongst other things.
Adopted by 461 votes in favour, 179 against and 9 abstentions, the report by Timothy Kirkhope (ECR, UK) takes up the substance of the compromise already reached between the EP and the Council in December of last year, but the dossier could not be approved at the time due to the insistence of the Liberal and Socialist groups of the EP on voting on it at the same time as on the package on the new rules on the protection of personal data, which was done on 14 April.
“We have adopted an important tool to fight terrorists and traffickers. By collecting, sharing and analysing the PNR data, our intelligence agencies will be able to detect suspicious types of behaviour to monitor. The PNR are not a silver bullet, but the countries which have PNR systems have shown that they are highly effective”, said the rapporteur.
“The concerns about the collection and retention of data were understandable, but I feel that the directive sets guarantees in place for the data and that the legislation is proportionate given the risks we are faced with”, he added.
Although there was little suspense regarding the outcome of the vote, a number of MEPs, such as the Dutch Liberal Sophie in't Veld, tried to derail the PNR dossier by tabling amendments which change the essence of the compromise. She remains staunchly opposed to a system she feels is ineffective and intrusive. The MEPs of the Greens/EFA group, among them Jan-Philipp Albrecht, also stuck to their guns, arguing that the PNR directive is a “largely symbolic measure at the expense of more effective ones”.
The French Home Affairs Minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, who has been fighting intensively for the adoption of this system since the Paris attacks of January 2015 and the attacks of November, welcomed the outcome and this “vital step in stepping up the fight against terrorism in Europe”.
The PNR “will be a valuable tool in increasing the safety of European citizens by making it easier ahead of time to detect movements of jihadi terrorists using air transport, not only across Europe, but also between Europe and other regions of the world, to stop them from taking action”, the French minister commented.
It now remains for the Council to definitively adopt the European PNR, which it will do on 21 April. Readers may recall that the directive, which will enter into force within two years, provides for the member states to create “passenger intelligence units” to manage the PNR data collected by the airlines. This information will be kept for a period of five years, but after six months the data will be “masked” - in other words, elements which may allow a person to be identified, such as name, address and contact details, will be removed.
The passenger intelligence unit will be responsible for collecting, storing and processing the PNR data, transferring them to the competent authorities and exchanging them with the passenger intelligence units of other member states and with Europol. The directive stipulates that these transfers may be made only on a case-by-case basis and “only for the purposes of preventing or detecting terrorist infringements or serious crimes, as well as for the purposes of investigations or prosecutions”.
The directive will apply to extra-EU flights, but the member states may extend this application to intra-EU flights (from one member state to another), as long as it notifies the European Commission of this. The EU countries may also decide to collect and process the PNR data of travel agents and tour operators. The Commission will revise the EU PNR directive two years after it has been transposed into national law. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)