EU Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive: an overview 

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The provisional deal reached by Parliament and Council negotiators on 2 December 2015 on an EU directive regulating the use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime was approved by plenary on 14 April 2016 by 461 votes to 179, with 9 abstentions. The text was approved by the Council of the EU on 21 April.

Once published in the EU Official Journal of the EU, member states will have two years to transpose the legislation into their national laws.


The EU PNR directive will oblige airlines to hand EU countries their passengers' data in order to help the authorities to fight terrorism and serious crime. It would require more systematic collection, use and retention of PNR data on air passengers, and would therefore have an impact on the rights to privacy and data protection.


MEPs sought to ensure, in three-way talks ("trilogues") with the Council and Commission, that the draft law complies with the proportionality principle and includes strict personal data protection safeguards.


In this background note you will find information on what happened in the Civil Liberties Committee since this proposal came to Parliament.