MEPs in the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee today voted to send plans for an EU system to store airline passengers' private data to the scrapheap.

GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst commented: "With this vote against the establishment of a European system for the mass collection of passenger name record data (PNR), the Parliament's Committee on Civil Liberties has finally lived up to its task of defending and strengthening fundamental rights in Europe.

Not only is such a system contrary to our rights to data protection, privacy and free movement, in addition, to this day, there has not been any proof whatsoever that mass collection and blanket retention of PNR data is actually necessary for tackling terrorism and serious international crime. It is clear, however, that the establishment of this system would be very costly. Particularly against a backdrop of cuts to social spending and the ongoing crisis we should refrain from giving such huge gifts to the security industry."

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Eurodac breaches rule of law

MEPs in the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee today voted on plans to update rules on the Eurodac database of asylum seeker fingerprints, notably by allowing law enforcement authorities access to the database.

GUE/NGL MEP Cornelia Ernst commented: "Allowing law enforcement authorities access to the Eurodac database, where fingerprints of asylum seekers are stored, effectively puts asylum seekers under suspicion of having committed a crime, which is unacceptable. In addition, this policy contributes to the acceptance of racist views and therefore only serves to boost extremist right-wing groups."

GUE/NGL MEP Dennis de Jong said: "Not only does the Eurodac database operate completely contrary to its original intended purpose, but it also breaches the rule of law. People should be innocent until proven guilty, and for asylum seekers and refugees that principle is not respected."