The Passenger Name Record Directive will be voted on by the European Parliament next week, alongside the Data Protection Package. The S&D Group welcomed this development but also slammed hypocritical national governments for their failure to make use of existing EU measures to fight terrorism.
Claude Moraes, S&D MEP and chair of the civil liberties, justice and home affairs committee said:
"Today the Parliament made clear that it is ready to back the PNR directive and the data protection package next week. These measures have an important role to play in combatting terrorism. The PNR directive can be a useful tool in the fight against terror if the data collected is used and shared effectively by law enforcement agencies. However it is not and should not be presented as a silver bullet.
"The most important lesson that has come out of the tragic events in Paris and Brussels is not that we do not have enough information on terror suspects but that this information is not being used or shared effectively by national law enforcement agencies. That is why we pushed so hard for the Data Protection Package to be voted alongside PNR because we need to have a clear legal framework of how personal data can be used and shared. Having this framework will make it significantly easier for national law enforcement agencies to share information quickly and effectively.
"What we have learnt in the last few years is that adopting measures at an EU level is only half of the battle. Getting national governments to actually implement these and use instruments to their full extent is essential if we want to combat terrorism and keep citizens safe. They must get serious about funding Europe-wide anti-terrorism bodies, make better use of European instruments for sharing vehicle registration details, finger printing and DNA-data and finally strengthen Europol. Only then will we be able to get to grips with the scale of the threat that we face."
