ECJ confirms European Parliament's concerns on PNR data transfer

12.00.00am BST (GMT +0100) Tue 30th May 2006

The European Court of Justice judgement this morning confirmed that the 2004 Council Decision and Commission 'adequacy finding' on the transfer of airline passenger data records (PNR) was illegal and must be annulled.

The European Parliament had backed a report by a Dutch Liberal Democrat MEP in May 2004 to seek annulment of the Council and Commission Decision which had proceeded with an agreement with the US authorities to collect data in 34 different categories and ignoring Parliament's concerns for data protection.

"The response to 9/11 has been costly both to the tax-payer and to individual freedoms", said Graham Watson MEP, Leader of the Liberal Democrat Group in the EP and former chairman of the committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs. "It has made us little, if any safer."

"Individual privacy is an essential component of protecting freedom. Today's judgement vindicates our four year campaign against the agreement signed against the will of the European Parliament in 2004, though paradoxically it suggests a worrying implication that Parliament may be excluded from consultation on future agreements of this type (bilateral or otherwise) which do not fall clearly under EU competence. This makes a mockery of the third pillar division under the current Treaty and reinforces the argument for use of the article 42 "bridging clause" to bring all EU legislation under full democratic scrutiny."

Sophie In't Veld MEP (D66, Netherlands) replaces her predecessor from 2004, Johanna Boogerd-Quaak as spokesperson on the issue as a similar case also concerns Canada for which Parliament recommended witholding its opinion pending today's Court decision.

"I am glad the European Court of Justice has annulled the decision on transfer of passenger data to the United States. A recent evaluation shows that the US do not sufficiently comply with the agreements made and are not adequately protecting the privacy of passengers. The European Union has to defend the civil rights of its citizens more strongly," said Sophie In't Veld.

"The US has never been willing to show that the transfer of passenger data helped them arresting terrorists. If they are not able to show that this bureaucratic red tape is effective, I believe we do not need a new agreement with the United States at all. Otherwise I fear that the Council will try to push through an agreement under the third pillar (intergovernmental cooperation) and ignore Parliament's concerns over data protection altogether," she added. The European Data Protection Supervisor has also backed Parliament's position.