Observatory: EU surveillance of passengers (PNR)

EU-PNR: Reactions: European Airline body dismayed at proposal for EU-PNR system (Association of European Arlines, press release, pdf) Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines said:

"Commissioner Frattini's proposed decentralised system means that our carriers will have to comply with 27 different national data collection systems. We are talking about an operational and technical nightmare – and the Commission totally ignores the financial implications for the airline industry, which we haven't even started assessing yet."

The Association is also calling for the EU-PNR system to be "applied to all transport modes, so as to avoid discrimination and comptetitive distortions" (that is, to sea, rail and land travel).

Green group in the European Parliament: Civil liberties: New anti-terror measures seem unnecessary and incoherent (link) Dutch Green and civil liberties spokesperson Kathalijne Buitenweg said the:

"proposal on the retention of air passenger data in the EU seems unnecessary and incoherent. The Commission has made no attempt to justify why these measures are necessary and why the existing legislation is not sufficient - an existing Directive on passenger data from 2004 has yet to be fully implemented! (1) It is also incoherent to propose a European-level decision on data storage, while leaving the issues of data protection and how the data should be processed fully to national legislators."

ALDE (liberal group) in European Parliament: New EU anti-terrorism measures will further erode our civil liberties (link) Sophie In't Veld (D66, Netherlands) and EP rapporteur on PNR issues for the committee on Justice and Civil Liberties said:

" We should not be compounding the mistakes of the July PNR agreement with the US by introducing our own - at least until there is serious and irrefutable proof that such mass exchange of personal data is resulting in the arrest of terrorists.I remain adamant that PNR data should not be used as an indiscriminate form of data profiling."

EU-PNR: Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"Unless stopped in its tracks it is just a question of time before the scope of the EU-PNR scheme is extended to cover all crime, flights inside and between Member States and sea, land and rail travel as well."

European Commission PNR proposal: Summary of impact assessment (SEC 1422) (pdf) The EU-PNR scheme plans for the personal data of all travellers by air in and out of the EU to be checked against "watchlists". The terminology in this Impact Assessment at times refers to "terrorism and organised crime" and at other times to "terrorists and criminals" suggesting that the intended scope of the measure may be changed in the near future. This impression is confirmed when the assessment speaks of:

" a wider application at a later stage. It should be left to member states to extend the scope of the proposal to other modes of transport at this point.... the majority of consulted parties agree the scope of the proposal should be limited to air transport as a first step, with the possibility of extending it to other forms of transport at a later stage...At this stage, it is thought disproportionate to extend the scope of the proposal to flights from one Member State to another Member State and to internal flights within a Member State"

On data protection the assessment is equally confused. First, it refers to the draft Framework Decision on personal data in police and judicial matters which has yet to be agreed but which offers little or no protection - and anyway, only covers the transfer of data between member states not national laws. The assessment goes on to states that member states should:

"the Convention 108 for the Protection of Individuals with Regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data of the Council of Europe. In practice, all Member States should also already have national legislation in place to cover data processing by law enforcement authorities."

The term "should" tells us that the Commission does not know. Moreover, the failure to fully incorporate of Council of Europe's Convention 108 of 1981 plus Recommendation 15 of 1987 and its two Additional Protocols in the proposed Framework Decision is highlighted by EU Data Protection Commissioners

For full background and the European Commission's PNR proposal see- Observatory: EU surveillance of passengers (PNR)

EU-PNR-PLAN: European Commission: PNR (passenger name record) scheme proposed to place under surveillance all travel in and out of the EU

- EU PNR plan mirrors controversial EU-US PNR scheme
- European Parliament only to be "consulted"
- Data protection fiasco
- "not convinced of the necessity of such a proposal and is therefore opposed to the proposal"
(Article 29 Data Protection Working Party)

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

"This is yet another measure that places everyone under surveillance and makes everyone a "suspect" without any meaningful right to know how the data is used, how it is further processed and by whom..

We have already got the mandatory taking of fingerprints for passports and ID cards and the mandatory storage of telecommunications data of every communication, now we are to have the mandatory logging of all travel in and out of the EU.

The underlying rationale for each of the measures is the same - all are needed to tackle terrorism. Yet there is little evidence that the gathering of "mountain upon mountain" of data on the activities of every person in the EU makes a significant contribution. On the other hand, the use of this data for other purposes, now or in the future, will make the EU the most surveilled place in the world".

EU-API-PNR: Question to the European Commission from Sarah Ludford MEP (ALDE) on EU API (pdf) Spain is using the 2004 EC Directive on the collection of API (Advance Passenger Information) for people crossing the EU's external borders to require API for flights inside the EU. API is the personal data contained on the passport page machine readable zone - name, date of birth, place of birth, expiry date and issuing authority.

JULY 2007: EU: European Commission to propose EU PNR travel surveillance system

- why have we heard so little about the EU's API system?
- what is the difference between API, APP and PNR?
- new US PNR list the same as the old one

EU-Canada Passenger Name Record (PNR) agreement (pdf)

(15.9.04) EU-API-PNR Directive published in Official Journal: Text (pdf). Published on 6 August 2004 and came into force on 5 September. All Member States has to implement by 5 September 2006. See also: Justice and Home Affairs Council agrees on the surveillance of all airline passengers: PNR Directive, adopted text (pdf) & JHA Council to agree the surveillance of all airline passengers: Report and documents - data can be kept indefinitely by law enforcement agencies and dubious legal basis: European Commission wanted the Council to delay decision so as not to deal "piecemeal with law enforcement issues"

23.6.04: PNR: TransAtlantic Consumer Dialogue's Resolution on Passenger Name Records: civil society coalition to send resolution to EU-US Summit meeting in Dublin on 25 June: Resolution, background and signatories

29.4.04: EU-PNR: Justice and Home Affairs Council agrees on the surveillance of all airline passengers: PNR Directive, adopted text (pdf)

27.4.04: EU-PNR: UK parliament committee still has proposal under scrutiny -- Government has not even sent the latest draft Directive to parliament, how many other national parliaments has this happened to? Report and Letter

27.4.04: EU-PNR: JHA Council to agree the surveillance of all airline passengers: Report and documents

- "This is a classic case of sacrificing democratic standards in the name of the "war on terrorism" which is meant to be defending democracy"

- data can be kept indefinitely by law enforcement agencies and dubious legal basis: European Commission wanted the Council to delay decision so as not to deal "piecemeal with law enforcement issues"

update: 26.4.04: EU-PNR: JHA Council to agree the surveillance of all airline passengers? Report

Update 14.4.04: EU: The European Parliament's Committee on Citizens' Right and Freedoms has adopted a Second Report on the proposal for an EU-PNR (passenger name record) scheme which unanimously rejects the proposal (the first Report was agreed by 20 votes to 4 with 9 abstentions and referred by to the Committee by the plenary session). At their meeting on 5 April the Committee heard about the significant changes agreed by the Council on 30 March. Second Report (pdf) agreed by the Committee. The first report: Report on EU-PNR scheme (pdf).

The proposed Directive was put forward by the Spanish government last year and was radically altered by the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 30 March, see: Report and draft Directive  As the much-changed draft Directive is a member state initiative, by Spain, it has to be formally adopted by 1 May or it falls under the Amsterdam Treaty provisions.

1.4.04: EU-PNR scheme: The European Parliament referred back to the Committee on Citizens' Freedoms and Rights a report on the draft Directive on "the obligation of carriers to communicate passenger data" and calling for it to be withdrawn. The report: EP Report on EU-PNR scheme (pdf). The Directive was put forward by the Spanish government last year and was radically altered by the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 30 March, see: Report and draft Directive  As the much-changed draft Directive is a member state initiative, by Spain, it has to be formally adopted by 1 May or it falls under the Amsterdam Treaty provisions.

31.3.04: EU to adopt passenger name record scheme (PNR) - UK demands that data can be kept indefinitely and accessible by all law enforcement agencies agreed: Report and draft Directive

12.2.04: UK parliament committee criticises EU plan for collection of PNR data: Full-text of report

(28.1.04) EU PNR scheme: Irish Presidency seeking to push through plan for the surveillance of travel: Report and background

Updated 18.12.03: EU: Commission "compromises" and agrees on handing over passenger data to USA: Report and documents including the Commission's Communication on a global EU approach:

"What is quite unforgivable is that the European Commission thinks that the EU-USA deal - with a state which has no data protection laws and no intention of adopting them - is a better basis for a global standard than the EU's data protection laws which have served as a model for many countries around the world." (Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor)

EU plan for wholesale security checking of every traveller: Report

UK takes lead on surveillance of passengers: "security and immigration risks" to be stopped from boarding: Report

(28.3.03) EU: Spain proposes data on all airline passengers to be sent to law enforcement agencies and for extra checks on all foreign nationals entering the EU: Special Report

Further evidence from Statewatch on proposed Directive on aircraft passenger data: October 2003

Evidence on proposed Directive on aircraft passenger data: Evidence to the Select Committee on the European Union, sub-committee "F": Proposed Directive on aircraft passenger data: September 2003

Documentation

1. Irish Presidency "compromise" dated 9 January 2004: 5183/04 (pdf)

2. Draft dated 17 December 2003: 16119/03 (pdf)

3. Statewatch analysis, December 2003, EU plan for wholesale security checking for every traveller

4, Commission's Communication on Transfer of Air Passenger Name Record (PNR) Data: A Global EU Approach (16.12.03, pdf)

5. Draft proposal dated 24 November 2003: 15165/03 (pdf)

6. Draft proposal 12 November 2003: 14652/03

7. Replies by governments to questionnaire on Spanish proposal: 13363/03, 15.10.03

8. Draft 27 October 2003: 11406/1/03

9. UK letter agreeing to wider scope: 10952/03

10. First draft proposal 25 March 2003: 7161/03 (pdf)

11. 1995 EC Directive on data protection

See also: Statewatch Observatory on PNR - USA

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