MEPs in the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee today voted to send plans for an EU system to store airline passengers' private data to the scrapheap.

GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst commented: “With this vote against the establishment of a European system for the mass collection of passenger name record data (PNR), the Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties has finally lived up to its task of defending and strengthening fundamental rights in Europe.

Not only is such a system contrary to our rights to data protection, privacy and free movement, in addition, to this day, there has not been any proof whatsoever that mass collection and blanket retention of PNR data is actually necessary for tackling terrorism and serious international crime. It is clear, however, that the establishment of this system would be very costly. Particularly against a backdrop of cuts to social spending and the ongoing crisis we should refrain from giving such huge gifts to the security industry.”

GUE/NGL Press Contacts:
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20