Question of the Week: The US authorities recently prevented a Mexico-bound KLM flight from entering American airspace after they received data on the passengers on board. What implications does this incident have for the EU’s accord on handing over passenger, name, record (PNR) data to the US?

Date: 12/05/05

The US authorities recently prevented a Mexico-bound KLM flight from entering American airspace after they received data on the passengers on board. Sophia in 't Veld is a Dutch Liberal MEP. We asked her: What implications does this incident have for the EU's accord on handing over passenger, name, record (PNR) data to the US? in 't Veld: The PNR agreement which the EU reached with the US last year only applies to flights to and from the US and to flights that stop over in the US.

It does not apply to flights through US airspace. The flight from the Netherlands to Mexico had to turn back because the US found out about somebody on board. They didn't get the information from the Netherlands; they got it from the Mexicans.

But how did they get access to the data? As far as I know, the EU doesn't have a PNR agreement with Mexico.

Frattini indicated this week that he believes the EU does not have any competence in this matter, that it is something between Mexico and the US and does not concern us.

But we are talking about the personal data of EU citizens here so it is within the field of the EU's competence or at least the EU's responsibility. Parliament is contesting the PNR accord in the European Court of Justice. Now it turns out that all of the fears of the Parliament were justified. All the nice words we got last year - that personal data is safe - turn out not to be true at all.

Question answered by Dutch Liberal MEP Sophia in't Veld.

European Commission: DG Transport and Energy: Transport: Air passenger rights in the European Union http://ec.europa.eu/comm/transport/air/rights/index_en.htm

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