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A draft law that would oblige airlines to hand EU countries the data of passengers entering or leaving the EU, in order to help the authorities to fight serious crime and terrorism, is currently under discussion in the European Parliament. The committee in charge of the so-called EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) proposal is the Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs Committee.

The proposed directive would require more systematic collection, use and retention of PNR data on passengers taking “international” flights (those entering the EU from, or leaving it for, a third country), and would therefore have an impact on the rights to privacy and data protection. According to the Council's general approach, it should also be possible to extend it to internal EU flights. Overall, MEPs want to ensure that the proposal complies with the proportionality principle, is limited in scope and includes strict data protection safeguards.

Further Information

• Procedure file
• Commission proposal from 2011
• Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs