The European Union and the United States have initialled a new agreement on the transfer of air passengers’ data for flights from the EU to the US. If adopted by the European Parliament and EU Member States in the Council of Ministers, the new agreement on Passenger Name Records (PNR) will replace the current agreement from 2007, improving data protection whilst providing an efficient tool to fight serious transnational crime and terrorism. The new PNR agreement brings more clarity and legal certainty to both citizens and air carriers. It ensures better information sharing by US authorities with law enforcement and judicial authorities from the EU, it sets clear limits on what purposes PNR data may be used for, and it contains a series of new and stronger data protection guarantees.Source: European Commission press release IP/11/1368 of Nov. 17, 2011
