Parliament wants ‘PNR’ talks with US

MEPs are to call for a dialogue with the US Congress to discuss the transfer of air passenger data and global security issues.

The proposal is part of a response by the European Parliament's civil liberties committee to the European Court of Justice's annulment of an EU agreement to transfer information processed by airlines to the US authorities for security reasons. While the committee has agreed with the European Commission to leave substantial changes to the deal to a broader review to take place next year, it is insisting that the US in the short-term implements "undertakings" it has already signed up to but failed to enforce.

These include publishing an annual review of how the transfer system is working. At the moment, the US takes the data from the EU networks. But it has agreed to allow the EU to send it the information. The undertakings would also allow passengers the right to correct the data collected and have access to a judicial complaint procedure.

Sophia in 't Veld, the Dutch Liberal MEP who drafted the report, said a dialogue with the US Congress was vital given the various problems which had arisen lately. "We have to see if it's possible to come to a global standard. We have had the CIA rendition flights scandal, the SWIFT scandal, Guantanamo Bay abuses, data retention and then there is the issue over PNR [passenger name records]...we no longer have to accept the US conditions imposed," she said.

The report, which will be voted on by the committee today (13 July), also calls for an inter-parliamentary dialogue with Canada and Australia. Sarah Ludford, a UK Liberal MEP, said she was particularly supportive of the report's call for the US to impose limitations on which agencies received the passenger data.

MEPs are to call for a dialogue with the US Congress to discuss the transfer of air passenger data and global security issues.