The European Commission has decided to refer Spain to the EU Court of Justice for failing to transpose the EU Directive on the collection of air passenger data for the purpose of combating terrorism (PNR) and detecting serious crime, the institution announced in a press release on Thursday 2 July.
Directive 2016/681, adopted in April 2016, had to be transposed by 25 May 2018. The infringement proceeding against Spain was launched in July 2018 and a reasoned opinion was sent in January 2019 (see EUROPE 12180/27). “More than 2 years after the expiry of the deadline for transposing the Directive, Spain is the only Member State which has not yet notified the Commission of the adoption of all the measures necessary to transpose the Directive”, the Commission explained in its press release.
However, on the same day the Commission decided to close the infringement proceeding against the Czech Republic and Austria, which have now notified the full transposition of the Directive.
The Directive sets out rules for the transfer of airline passenger name record data to the competent national authorities in the EU, which analyse them in advance and can prevent passengers from boarding the plane if they are suspects.
The European Parliament had fought against this directive and then rallied to it under pressure from EU Interior Ministers. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)