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PNR (passenger name record) scheme proposed to place under surveillance all travel in and out of the EU:
including full-text of European Commssion proposal (COM 654):
www.statewatch.org/news/2007/nov/01eu-pnr.htm

– EU PNR plan mirrors controversial EU-US PNR scheme
– European Parliament only to be “consulted”
– Data protection fiasco
– “not convinced of the necessity of such a proposal and is therefore opposed to the proposal” (Article 29 Data Protection Working Party)

Tony Bunyan, Statewatch editor, comments:

“This is yet another measure that places everyone under surveillance and makes everyone a “suspect” without any meaningful right to know how the data is used, how it is further processed and by whom.

We have already got the mandatory taking of fingerprints for passports and ID cards and the mandatory storage of telecommunications data of every communication, now we are to have the mandatory logging of all travel in and out of the EU.

The underlying rationale for each of the measures is the same – all are needed to tackle terrorism. Yet there is little evidence that the gathering of “mountain upon mountain” of data on the activities of every person in the EU makes a significant contribution. On the other hand, the use of this data for other purposes, now or in the future, will make the EU the most surveilled place in the world”.

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