MEPs have rightly voted to refer the draft EU-Canada deal on passenger data retention (PNR) to the European Court of Justice. Speaking after today's vote, GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst welcomed the move:

“With major questions surrounding the lawfulness of the EU's PNR schemes we need the ECJ's legal assessment of this agreement. An ECJ ruling earlier this year said the broad retention of data without justification is not in line with EU law. This should now have a bearing on the proposed EU PNR Directive which the conservative side of this house wants to push ahead with, despite serious concerns,” she said.

PNR is a record in an airline or travel industry database that contains the itinerary and details of each passenger.

Ernst continued: “The European Data Protection Supervisor has also underlined problems related to such PNR agreements and data sharing with third countries, so Parliament made a wise decision today to back this proposal for referral.”

The GUE/NGL group is made up of 52 MEPs from across Europe working for peace, solidarity, social justice, equality, democracy and human rights in Europe and beyond. It is the only gender balanced group in the European Parliament.

GUE/NGL Press:
David Lundy +32 470 85 05 09
Gay Kavanagh +32 473 84 23 20
Emily Macintosh +32 470 85 05 08