Aviation securityEU Parliament considers reviving uniform air-passenger information legislation

Published 20 January 2015

The European Parliament is considering reviving draft legislation which would force airline companies to give EU member governments a cohesive and uniform set of passenger information, following heightened security concerns in the wake of the 7 January Paris attacks. The legislation, first proposed in 2011, was rejected bu the EU Parliament in 2013.

The European Parliament is considering reviving draft legislation which would force airline companies to give EU member governments a cohesive and uniform set of passenger information, following heightened security concerns in the wake of the 7 January Paris attacks.

As Bloomberg News reports, the draft, originally rejected by the Parliament’s civil-liberties committee in April 2013, is now being steered by Tory Party member Timothy Kirkhope through the EU assembly. He has vowed to proposed stronger provisions on data protection in order to win over skeptical lawmakers who still question the constitutionality of the bill.

The measures, — originally proposed in 2011 before being rejected two years later, would require all EU and foreign flight carriers to provide authorities with data on passengers and their PNR, or “passenger name record” information, which includes seat number, reservation date, payment method, and travel itinerary.

“Europe’s patchwork use of PNR creates weak point that terrorists can exploit, said Kirkhope in a statement last Tuesday to the 28-nation Parliament in Strasbourg, France. “I want an agreement that safeguards lives and liberties by offering stronger data-protection rules while also making it much harder for a radicalized fighter to slip back into Europe undetected.”

The heightened security concerns come after it was reported that among the 7 January Jihadist attackers was one who may have received military training in Yemen and traveled between Syria and France days before the attacks. Some see the more cohesive EU-sanctioned PNR as a safer alternative to the sporadic use of it in place currently.

The proposed Europe-wide system would resemble the U.S. system put in place after the 9/11 terror attacks.

Manfred Weber, the German head of the Christian Democrats in the Parliament, told reporters on Tuesday that his party had endorsed the draft legislation and expressed hope that opponents of the legislation would reconsider their position.

Additionally, German chancellor Angela Merkel and British prime minister David Cameron have both urged the Parliament in recent days to unblock the bill.

EU president Donald Tusk also added his voice to those supporting the proposal, declaring on 13 January in Strasbourg that at stake was the need to “protect the security of those who elected to this chamber.”

“If we do not get a single European PNR,” he said, “We may end up with twenty-eight national ones. One European system is clearly better for security and freedom.”