Today the main political groups in the European Parliament gave the green light to the EU-US agreement on the transfer of Passenger Name Records (PNR), despite the rapporteur Sophie in 't Veld (D66, Netherlands) recommending to withhold consent. 

The European Parliament today voted to give its consent to a controversial draft EU-US passenger data (PNR) agreement. The positive vote on the EU-US PNR deal, which came in spite of the fact that fundamental concerns previously outlined by the EP and European courts have not been addressed, will mean US authorities will be able to continue to retain private information about EU airline passengers (1). The Greens voted to reject the deal and hit out at the outcome with Green home affairs spokesperson Jan Philipp Albrecht (Germany) stating:

"The decision of the Swiss Federal Council to re-establish quotas on certain categories of residence permits granted to nationals of 8 Member States is inacceptable and can only be described as a discriminatory measure," said Rafal Trzaskowski MEP, Rapporteur on the European Economic Area (EEA) and Switzerland.

Photo/video opportunity ahead of PNR vote
The European United Left/Nordic Green Left is holding a protest against the PNR agreement, this morning, April 19, at 11.45 am, in front of the hemicycle.

In the vote the group will request that the draft EU-US agreement be sent to the Court of Justice for an opinion on its compatibility with EU data protection legislation.

Drawing attention to the dramatic situation of fifteen Kurdish hunger strikers in Strasbourg, 10 Members of the European Parliament from various political groups today joined Sakharov Prize Laureate Leyla Zana, South African Judge Mr Essa Moosa and parliamentarians from several European countries in a visit of solidarity to the strikers.

Fifteen Kurds from several European countries have been on an indefinite hunger strike in Strasbourg's Saint Maurice Church since March 1st following a similar move by 400 political prisoners in Turkey in mid-February.