Brussels, 29/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday morning, after learning of the agreement reached by European and American negotiators on the transfer of air passengers' data - PNR, passenger name records - EU ambassadors decided, in view of the reservations shown by parliamentarians from some countries, to postpone the final adoption. “No state opposed the general principles of the text. So there is an agreement in principle,” an official said. Several delegations, including those of Ireland, the Czech Republic, France, Finland and Denmark, said that they would have to await their parliaments' decisions. With the appointment of a European official, member states also want a close eye kept on the mechanism which will monitor the use Washington makes of the data. Member states have given themselves until 10 July to come to a formal agreement, the final deadline being 31 July 2007. Finland, however, said that it could be 12 July before its parliament considers the text, thereby delaying the adoption of the text until the General Affairs/External Relations Council on 23 July. Once signed, the agreement will run for seven years. It gives the US Department of Homeland Security access to 19 pieces of data, including some sensitive data, on each air passenger, rather than the 18 we said previously when giving details of the compromise (see EUROPE 9457). Dutch MEP Sophie in't Veld (ALDE) said, “The PNR deal is simply bad”, given that the uses to which the personal data will be put have not been sufficiently specified. She also regrets that the data will make it possible to build up a profile of passengers. Greek MEP Stavros Lambrinidis (PES) wondered why the EU had not managed to reach as good an agreement on PNR as it had on SWIFT. “Contrary to SWIFT, it appears to place virtually no limitation to what US authorities are allowed to do with European data,” he said, referring to the agreement, confirmed by the EU on Thursday, on the access American authorities can, in future, have to bank data transferred by SWIFT to the US Treasury (see EUROPE 9457). (bc)