(Dieser Artikel ist auch in deutscher Sprache verfügbar)

The Hungarian President Laszlo Solyom decided not to sign the national law regarding the promulgation of the EU-US PNR (Passenger Name Records) agreement and sent it back to the Parliament, considering that it can be improved.

This is one of the few set-backs of the new EU-US PNR agreement concluded in October 2006, even though there have been numerous critics to the content of the new agreement that makes possible for air companies to send to US authorities the personal data of the passengers that were registered in the booking system.

According to the Hungarian President "it is necessary that the Parliament make possible the forwarding of data in the act on promulgation of the international agreement only in case the person in question has explicitly approved of it. The President's opinion is that a regulation of such content would not be contradictory to the international agreement."

Therefore Mr. Solyom asked the Parliament to re-discuss the bill and to complete it with a rule that stipulates for the explicit approval of the person in question to forward of his data abroad.

According to the presidential press release, Mr. Solyom has had consultations with the data protection ombudsman and the general director of Malev (Hungarian Airlines). Both of them considered that returning the bill did not prevent the operation of overseas flights of the national air company.

Adam Foldes , the Data Protection Program Director within the the Hungarian Civil Liberties Union commented on the events: "Even if the Hungarian law on promulgating the PNR agreement includes provisions on asking for the passengers’ consent for handling their personal data, it won’t be very useful. How can anybody regard the consent as freely given when the passengers are not allowed to board or disembark the airplane without providing them. Although the President’s veto is not futile: the current agreement shall expire no later than 31 July 2007. His veto should be a benchmark for the Hungarian Government in the renegotiations. "

The Government might not push too much this issue since the U.S. President promised last week that he will ask the Congress to waive the visa obligations of the new EU member states. Dr. Kinga Göncz, the Minister of Foreign Affairs was asked by journalists if the President’s action could jeopardise Hungary’s chances in obtaining a visa free status from the U.S. The minister replied she hopes the problem will be solved soon as it might cause problems in the long run.

Communique: Today Laszlo Solyom has returned to the Parliament the bill about the promulgation of the agreement on registration of travellers' data concluded between the European Union and the United States of America. (29.11.2006) http://www.keh.hu/keh_en/news/20061129communique.html

The Hungarian President of the Republic has vetoed the ratification of the EU-US PNR Agreement (29.11.2006)
http://www.tasz.hu/index.php?op=contentlist2&catalog_id=3496

Draft of the Act on PNR Agreement (only in Hungarian, 10.2006)
http://www.parlament.hu/irom38/01097/01097.pdf

EDRI-gram: New EU-US interim deal on Passenger Name Record (11.10.2006)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number4.19/pnr