Days ahead of a sensitive debate by the EP Committee on Civil Liberties (LIBE), scheduled on 11 November in Brussels, six home affairs ministers agreed to put pressure on MEPs to adopt swiftly – after more than a year of refusal – a system for the collection of air passengers' data (passenger name record, or PNR) for counter-terrorism purposes.
The context has changed since LIBE's rejection of the directive in April 2013. There is now a growing phenomenon of foreign…
Sought-after data
Collected by airlines for commercial reasons, PNR data (dates, itinerary, contacts, payment means, etc) are of interest to more and more countries for law enforcement purposes. Under the EU proposal, airlines would be obliged to transfer them to a "single designated unit" charged with processing them in each member state. They would be rendered anonymous and retained for five years. For cost reasons, the Commission limited its proposal to international flights entering and leaving the EU. France, the UK and Spain pushed for legislation covering all flights, including intra-European.