Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2010-11-10-Speech-3-093"
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"en.20101110.15.3-093"2
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"Madam President, honourable Members, I believe that the importance and necessity of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data have become clear in recent years. We need only think of the attacks in New York, and also of the failed attack on the flight from Amsterdam Schiphol to Detroit. Of course, in the last few days, too, we have noticed that the threat levels have remained very high.
I should like to add two comments in my brief introduction: 1) PNR data may indeed only be used by the airlines and thus, not by the Member States’ authorities themselves, and, of course, their use by the airlines is subject to permission from the European Union. 2) The Presidency, too, is aware of the importance Parliament attaches to the general agreement between the EU and the United States in the field of data protection. I would refer in this connection to the debate you have just held in this House with my colleague, the Minister for Justice.
In this brief introduction, I should like to make it clear that, whilst these PNR data are a real priority of the Council’s, the Council also really wants to take the utmost account of Parliament’s justified concerns with regard to striking the good balance between privacy and security that is always needed. I do think that recent events and threats keep forcing us to face the facts. Madam President, I shall, of course, be at Parliament’s disposal at any time – not only today but also in the next few weeks – to continue the debate on PNR data and on the mandates.
We need only look at information coming in from several Member States, and also the increased threat levels in a number of countries, such as France and Spain. My home country, too, has increased the threat level for certain places, and a travel alert was also recently received from the United States. I believe that the Commission and the Presidency have worked very hard in the PNR field in the last few months.
The current state of affairs is as follows. On 21 September, the Commission informed the Council about EU policy on the transfer of passenger data to third countries. It also presented three draft negotiating mandates for the conclusion of agreements with Canada, the United States and Australia, all three with identical content.
Therefore, the Council held discussions immediately, on 7 October, regarding these drafts – the method and timing of the three mandates – and decided that all three mandates should indeed have identical content, that the Council would adopt them at the same time, that they would start at the same time, and that the negotiations with the United States, Canada and Australia should start by December of this year at the latest.
Looking at the content of the mandates and of the PNR agreement, the Council is aware that the most important thing with regard to the three agreements is ensuring a sufficiently high level of data protection. In my opinion, our foreign partners, too, must obtain a guarantee that their personal data enjoy sufficient protection. Indeed, we have always required this when concluding agreements with other countries. The European Union has always focused on this, including in its previous agreements with countries.
Indeed, I should like to point out that one of those previous agreements – the one with Australia – was once described as the most data protection-friendly agreement of the year. Therefore, I believe that the European Parliament is right to impose stringent data protection requirements. The Council will therefore ensure that the data protection requirements continue to be respected, and will certainly also ensure, in particular, that the principle of proportionality will always be respected, in order to prevent any infringement of the right to protection of privacy.
Therefore, in the text of the negotiating mandates, the Council has also placed a strong emphasis on the importance of Articles 7 and 8 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union. In addition, these mandates lay down retention times and duration of access to PNR data that are proportional and limited.
This requirement has been highlighted even further by taking into account the various ways in which PNR data can be used. Back data can be used only reactively, current data can be used in real time, and risk profiles, in particular, will be drawn up for proactive use.
With regard to the risk models, we are aware that the European Parliament is very concerned about such ‘profiling’. Therefore, the Commission will clarify in great detail in its proposal what exactly is meant by ‘profiling’. In addition, the Presidency will ensure that risk assessments can never result in stigmatisation of persons of a certain ethnic origin."@en1
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