Brussels, 27/11/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Union has made a further step towards the long term implementation of a Passenger Name Record (PNR), which will allow member states to collate and share personal data from passengers held by commercial airlines in their attempts to counter terrorism. On Thursday 27 November, French Minister of the Interior Michèle Alliot-Marie indicated, at the end of a meeting with her European counterparts, that: “We are moving towards a definition of a PNR. We now know its main points of convergence and divergence, as well as the questions still pending”. European Commissioner for Justice, Freedom and Security Jacques Barrot said that it was too early to say whether the EU27 would have a European PNR one day or have purely national data collection systems. He warned that “if there are no national PNR, we are at risk of finding ourselves in a situation where Europe complicates the lives of its nationals”. The Czech Presidency will continue the work of the French Presidency on this dossier. Ivan Langer, the Czech interior minister, promised to work on the legal aspects of the proposal but indicated that it would be difficult to predict any possible adoption of a European PNR in 2009. The unlikeliness of adoption any time soon is further reinforced by the fact that the European Parliament would not be fully involved in the legislative process, given that the Lisbon Treaty is still not in force. During the Council, the French Presidency presented ministers with a report that aims to outline the essential features of a future European PNR. The French Presidency is proposing to establish an obligatory three year storage period instead of the five years contained in the Commission's initial proposal, as well as an additional authorised period of seven years for all member states. Similarly, the transfer of PNR data to third country authorities could occur, according to strict conditions, underlines the report. All member states approved the French report, including the countries opposed to the idea of a European PNR, such as Germany and Austria. The former gave its green light in exchange for a few modifications, such as the mention that the work pursued would only develop into “possible” later decisions. Germany also obtained an addition to the text with the possibility of an examination of the systematic use of PNR data. Apart from security questions, the possibility of the EU having a European PNR could prove useful, according to one diplomat, insofar as third countries such as South Korea recently put pressure on European airlines (Lufthansa, Air France, KLM and Finnair) to send them the personal data of airline passengers. (B.C./transl.rh)