Transatlantic Relations And Data Protection: A Never-Ending Story?

“Some in the US seem to be thinking that the legitimate goal to fight terrorism justifies all means, but many people in the EU appear to think the contrary”, said Civil Liberties Committee Vice-Chairman Stavros Lambrinidis (PES, EL), who chaired the public hearing on facts and laws governing the transfer of air passenger name record (PNR) data, financial transfer data (SWIFT case) and data exchanged between private parties ("safe harbour" data protection principles). Mr Lambrinidis wondered whether the sole purpose of collecting data was to fight terrorism. “You cannot break data protection rights except when the measure is proven to be necessary, proportionate and appropriate”, he explained. So far, there has been only one review of the first PNR agreement with the US, and there should at least be a second review of the system's current effectiveness before the new PNR agreement is signed in July, he said. Hearing documents at: http://www.europarl.europa.eu/hearings/default_en.htm http://www.newsdesk.se/view/pressrelease/139055 [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 28, 2007]

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