A controversial agreement allowing the United States access to data of passengers flying in from the European Union, including their payment details and dietary preferences, was finally approved on Thursday after it received the consent of the European Parliament.
Under the Passenger Name Record (PNR) deal - which EU interior ministers had signed up to in December - the US will keep the data for five years. However, after six months individual information such as names or contact details will be encrypted, the EU assembly said. After five years, the data will be moved to a "dormant database" for up to 10 years, with stricter access requirements for US officials.
Following that period, information will be "anonymized," with personal details permanently deleted, unless they are still being used for ongoing investigations. The US can use data to "prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorism and serious transnational crimes," or "to identify persons who would be subject to closer questioning or examination," the parliament said.
EU and US officials hailed Thursday's vote. The agreement "provides stronger protection of EU citizens' right to privacy and more legal certainty for air carriers" compared to existing rules which were agreed in 2007, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom said.
The EU parliament demanded that the 2007 deal be renegotiated to introduce greater privacy safeguards. The US ambassador to the EU, William Kennard, stressed that PNR data helped "nearly every high profile US terrorist investigation in recent years," including those into the 2008 Mumbai attacks and the 2010 Times Square car bombing attempt.
Several lawmakers, however, were still dissatisfied. Sophie in'T Veld, a liberal deputy from the Netherlands who had steered parliament's work on PNR, withdrew her name from the final bill, which was approved with 409 votes in favour, 226 against and 33 abstentions. The new agreement "unfortunately still falls short of the high standards of data privacy and legal protection that our citizens expect," she said in a statement. "Apparently the European Parliament believes transatlantic relations are more important than the fundamental rights of EU citizens," in'T Veld added.
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