EU-US passenger data agreement (PNR)

The European Commission today presented the finalised agreement between the EU and the US on passenger data (PNR) retention. The Greens have hit out at the agreement as failing to address the fundamental rights concerns raised by the European Parliament and various European courts under a previous agreement. The agreement now has to be endorsed by the European Parliament and Council and the Greens/EFA group has pledged to oppose this. Commenting on the deal, Green home affairs spokesperson Jan Philipp Albrecht said:

"The ‘new EU-US PNR’ agreement presented today is nothing more than a repackaging of the old agreement and fails to address the fundamental rights concerns repeatedly raised by the European Parliament and various European courts.

“Commissioner Mälstrom is trying to downplay the provisions on mass storage of private data for extended periods by US authorities but nobody should be fooled. Passenger data will be stored for up to 15 years; access would only be reduced after ten years to terrorist cases. While there is a provision that the data should be masked after 6 months, this changes nothing as the data will still be stored. This flies in the face of court rulings across Europe and is at odds with EU data protection rules.

“This new agreement would compromise the data protection of EU citizens and as such is unacceptable. The European Parliament must not endorse any agreement under these conditions and the Greens will push to ensure it does not.”