Brussels, 07/10/2009 (Agence Europe) - On Tuesday 6 October, the MEPs welcomed the decision of the EU27 to suspend negotiations for the creation of the European system for the collection of airline passengers' data, a PNR (Passenger Name Record), intended to fight terrorism.
"We are pleasantly surprised at the announcement by the Swedish Presidency that the work on the European PNR system has been put on hold until the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty ", said the rapporteur, Sophie In't Veld (ALDE, Netherlands), at a meeting of the committee on civil liberties (LIBE) of the European Parliament. "This will finally allow an in-depth Parliamentary examination to be carried out, focusing strongly on citizens' rights", she added. "It is nonetheless remarkable that the Council has kept its intentions so close to its chest for nearly a year, and that it does not apply the same logic to all other outstanding proposals which will have to be dealt with under the Lisbon Treaty ", she said. Pending the entry into force of Lisbon Treaty, the Swedish Presidency has given up on insisting that the text on PNR be unanimously adopted by the member states. Even if it had been possible for the text to have been adopted soon, the new treaty would still have forced the member states to re-negotiate by qualified majority and in co-decision with the Parliament. The Presidency therefore chose instead not to waste any time on this project and to wait until the Treaty actually enters into force, which is unlikely to displease the Parliament. The project to set in place the European PNR was presented in November 2007 and, before the summer, was still being discussed at the Council of Ministers of the EU level (EUROPE 9536). On several occasions, the MEPs have expressed serious criticisms of this proposal which, Ms In't Veld says, is a pale imitation of the system already in place in the United States. In the resolution adopted in November 2008, the European Parliament took a stance against the project, taking the view that it could be a threat to personal privacy (EUROPE 9787 and 9831). The MEPs have also called on several occasions for proof of the value of a system of this kind at European level. The Council has still not provided them with this information, said Ms In't Veld. (B.C./transl.fl)