First mooted in 2011 and subsequently rejected in 2013, the PNR proposal has, in light of the Paris and Brussels attacks, resurfaced, under a perceived urgent need to address the terrorist threat.

Held by some to be a disproportionate response and in breach of fundamental rights and freedoms of EU citizens, today saw the European Parliament approve the proposal which will enhance cooperation and provide greater and more effective intelligence sharing.

The Passenger Name Record (PNR) contains the information relating to the flight that you book i.e. the airline holds your name, flight information, when you made the booking and check-in and boarding details. We all provide the details to the airline to ensure we can take the flight. You may even provide additional information such as special dietary requirements and special access requirements. We need to draw a distinction between PNR and the well-known Advance passenger Information which is essentially the information available from a machine readable passport and which can be used to alert authorities to known terrorists and criminals. PNR however, "allows for a risk assessment of unknown individuals [and] Travel arrangements recorded as PNR data are used to identify specific behavioural patterns and make associations between known and unknown people" [European Parliament Briefing April 2015].

The Directive creates a mechanism for the collection, processing and transmission of the PNR data from airlines to Member States "including on intra-EU flights, and contains robust safeguards in terms of privacy, data protection and the respect of fundamental rights. PNR data may only be processed for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime."

Creating an EU wide system which will make PNR data transfer to law enforcement agencies, by processing PNR data against "predetermined criteria and relevant databases,..... national authorities can obtain valuable information concerning persons who might be involved in criminal activities such as terrorism, drugs trafficking, trafficking in human beings, child sexual exploitation and other serious crimes. PNR processing brings significant added value as compared to other law enforcement tools by allowing the identification of high risk travellers previously unknown to law enforcement authorities."

Click here to read the full press release.

© MacRoberts 2016

Disclaimer

The material contained in this article is of the nature of general comment only and does not give advice on any particular matter. Recipients should not act on the basis of the information in this e-update without taking appropriate professional advice upon their own particular circumstances.