Combating illegal immigration: obligation of carriers to communicate passenger data. Initiative Spain

The committee adopted the report by Ingo SCHMITT (EPP-ED, D) rejecting the Spanish initiative under the consultation procedure. MEPs said that the proposal gave no estimate of the impact this legislation would have on air carriers and that the rules would result in discrimination against air carriers compared with operators of other modes of transport. They also pointed out that the transfer of such data was technically impossible at the present time. A further criticism was that the Spanish initiative did not take data protection issues into account. Lastly, MEPs felt that the initiative had not been properly explained and that questions remained over subsidiarity and proportionality.�