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As the negotiations of the PNR (Passenger Name Records) issue continue between the US Government and the European Parliament, during his visit to Brussels on 14 May, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff asked for more relaxed restrictions on the personal data transfer from the airline companies.

The interim agreement on PNR between EU and US expires in July 2007 and unless a common agreement is reached by then, airlines are in a difficult position, facing either being sued in Europe for providing these data in the US or in the US for not sharing the information.

Chertoff addressed the Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs asking for looser privacy safeguard conditions in the

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The ratification by the Czech Parliament of the proposed agreement between the European Union and the Unites States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data has been taken off the agenda based on the position of the Green Party MPs.

On 23 April 2007, EDRI-member Iuridicum Remedium - Czech Republic sent a written appeal to the members of the Green Party parliamentary club, recommending them to vote against the ratification of the proposed agreement between the European Union and the Unites States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data for the following reasons:

The scope of the agreement submitted for approval as parliamentary paper

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More questions than answers were produced by a full day of discussions, 26 March 2007, on Passenger Name Records (PNR), including a public seminar by the European Parliament LIBE committee on transfers of personal data to the U.S. (PNR, SWIFT, and "Safe Harbour"), as well as a preparatory workshop of the Article 29 Working Party of national data protection authorities on the EU approach to a new PNR agreement with the US.

PNR can contain intimate personal information and enable the construction of detailed histories of your movements. It's generated every time you make an airline reservation, even if you don't take the flight. PNR are being used for profiling and controling movements.

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The European Parliament intends to strengthen its opposition to the US demands related to the transfer of European air passenger data (PNR).

Following the debate that took place on 31 January 2007 in the European Parliament, the vote on the position that EU should have concerning the new PNR agreement to be signed with USA on 31 July 2007 was delayed.

The end of the temporary agreement with the US gets closer and the US maintain their threat to fine non-compliant airlines and deny them the landing rights in the US. The American authorities already indicated that they had no intention of changing the terms of the agreement to a better data protection and privacy standards.

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New controversial issues appear in the case of Passanger Name Record (PNR) deal with US that show the level of privacy from the US authorities is very far from the European standards. As Statewatch revealed, the EU Council Presidency admitted that the Council of the European Union and the European Commission had known about the US's "Automated Targeting System" (ATS) profiling all visitors.

The issue has become critical after the Homeland Security Department (DHS) posted a Notice on the Federal Register in November 2006 showing that PNR data on travellers from the EU are included in the ATS used by DHS Customs and Border Protection (CBP) branch.

ATS is a system that U.S. has used for some years to assess risks to

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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

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On 16 October, the EU Council formally adopted a decision to sign an interim agreement with the United States on continuing the transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data by air carriers to the US Administration.

The interim agreement will replace the Agreement signed in May 2004, annulled in May 2006 by a judgment of the Court of Justice of the European Communities.

Following the process of negotiations, the USA succeeded in obtaining meaningful changes in the new agreement that meet the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requirements and that are also based on changes that may occur in the US legislation.

This implies that any change in the US laws will be reflected in the PNR

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A small detail on the EU-US agreement over the transfer of air passenger name records (PNR), and a non-related statement by US president George W. Bush, taken together give a nice highlight on the institutional mechanisms of privacy protection.

EU Commissioner Frattini told the press on 6 October 2006 that under the new PNR agreement, the passenger data will be accessible to other US agencies involved in counter-terrorism and law enforcement "on the condition that these have a comparable level of data protection". This formulation of course is absurd if you allow the basically unlimited transfer of data, as the core idea of data protection consists in the protection against further