Council accepts Spanish PNR proposal

The Council of ministers of justice and interior affairs (JHA) accepted on 29 April 2004 the Spanish proposal to oblige European air carriers to transfer passenger data about non-EU passengers entering the EU. “At the request of the authorities responsible for carrying out checks on persons at external borders, carriers will be obliged to transmit, by the end of the check-in, information concerning the passengers they will carry to an authorised border crossing point through which these persons will enter the territory of a member state..

The European Parliament criticised the Spanish initiative severely for not taking data protection issues into account. Euractiv writes: “MEPs have done everything they could to make this initiative fall. Under rules set in the Amsterdam Treaty, the Council had until 1 May to adopt Member States’ initiatives, after having consulted the Parliament. MEPs refused to deliver a formal opinion – despite being urgently requested by the Council to do so – in the hope that this would stop the Council from adopting the directive..

Council adopts Spanish initiative on transfer of data from non EU passengers (03.05.2004)
http://www.euractiv.com/cgi-bin/cgint.exe/940939-478?204&OIDN=1507644&-home=home

Council provisional minutes (29.04.2004)
http://ue.eu.int/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/jha/80112.pdf