A new agreement on the transfer of EU air passengers' personal data to the US Department of Homeland Security was approved by the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee on Tuesday. The deal sets the legal conditions for the transfer of this data and covers issues such as storage periods, purpose of the data use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress. The agreement is intended to replace another deal applied provisionally since 2007.
Passenger Name Record (PNR) data are collected by air carriers during the reservation process and include, inter alia, names, addresses, credit card details and seat numbers of air passengers. Under US law, air companies are obliged to make these data available to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prior to passenger departure. This applies to flights destined to or originating from the US.
The EU-US PNR deal was approved with 31 votes in favor, 23 against and one abstention. The EPP and ECR groups voted in favor. In a debate last February, a number of MEPs said that it was better to have an agreement, albeit not entirely satisfactory, than to have no agreement at all. The ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups voted against, because they consider that data protection safeguards foreseen in the agreement do not meet EU standards.
Following the vote, rapporteur Sophie in'T Veld explained: "The results of the vote show clearly that there are very strong reservations against this agreement. However, the US made it very clear that a "no" vote would be answered by suspending visa-free travel to the US. Many colleagues - understandably - did not want to make this sacrifice. But it is highly regrettable that the fundamental rights of EU citizens have been bargained away under pressure".
Under the new agreement, PNR data would be used mainly to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorism and serious transnational crimes.
Within 2 years of the agreement's entry into force, all air companies would be required to transfer PNR data to the DHS.
The agreement will be put to a plenary vote on 19 April. If Parliament gives its consent, the European Council will adopt a decision concluding the agreement, which would then be in force for seven years. If approved, the new agreement would replace the current one, which has applied provisionally since 2007.
If Parliament as a whole rejects the 2011 PNR agreement, the 2007 deal would continue to apply provisionally until its expiry date of July 2014.
The European Parliament adopted in October 2011 a deal with Australia on the processing and transfer of PNR data. The EU is currently negotiating a new PNR agreement with Canada.
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