EU/USA agreement: processing and transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data by air carriers (2007 PNR agreement)

After a presentation by the Commission, the Council held an exchange of views on progress made in the negotiations between the EU and the United States of America on a EU-US Passenger Name Records (PNR) agreement.

In December 2010, the Council adopted negotiating directives for agreements on the transfer and use of passenger name records (PNR) with Australia, Canada and the United States of America. This allowed the Commission, as the EU negotiator, to start discussions with these three countries. The goal of all three agreements is to prevent and combat terrorism and other forms of serious cross border crime.

At the same time, the EU is also committed to ensuring that any transmission of PNR data to third countries is done in a secure manner, in line with existing EU legal requirements, and that passengers are able to enforce their rights in relation to the processing of their data.

In May 2010, the European Parliament decided to postpone its vote on the request for consent on existing PNR agreements with the US and Australia. These two agreements have therefore not been concluded yet and have been applied on a provisional basis since 2007 and 2008, respectively. In a resolution, Parliament demanded that new agreements should be negotiated with the US and Australia as well as with Canada, with which a PNR agreement has been in force since 2006.