ABSTRACT
The European Union (EU) passenger name records (PNR) Directive would require more systematic collection, use, and retention of air passengers' personal data and thus have an impact on the rights to privacy and data protection. EU PNR Directive is an EU response to the patchy development of national PNR systems in European countries. The PNR Directive has data protection safeguards in line with the amendments the Parliament proposed. They include the appointment of a data protection officer in the Passenger Information Units (PIU) and documentation of PIUs' data-processing operations. The argument for the necessity of an EU PNR scheme—made by the European Commission—was based on the experiences of the United States (US) PNR framework and the UK PNR program. The 2016 EU PNR Directive has been influenced by the negotiations with the US to the extent that there are similarities between the directive and the 2012 EU–US PNR agreement.
