MEPs at the Civil Liberties Committee adopted the EU-US PNR deal which sets out the legal conditions for the transfer of the air passengers' data and covers issues such as storage periods, purpose of the data use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress. The deal was approved with 31 votes in favour, 23 against and one abstention. Some MEPs who voted against stressed that data protection safeguards foreseen in the agreement do not meet EU standards.

The Civil Liberties Committee in the European Parliament approved with 31 votes in favour, 23 against and one abstention the EU-US PNR deal which sets the legal conditions for the transfer of the air passengers' data and covers issues such as storage periods, purpose of the data use, data protection safeguards and administrative and judicial redress.

Air carriers collect Passenger Name Record (PNR) data during the reservation process and include, inter alia, names, addresses, credit card details and seat numbers of air passengers. Under US law, air companies are obliged to make these data available to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) prior to passenger departure. This applies to flights to or from the US.

The European Parliament adopted in October 2011 a deal with Australia on the processing and transfer of PNR data. And currently, the EU is negotiating a new PNR agreement with Canada. However, many MEPs voted against the deal with the US, because they consider that data protection safeguards foreseen in the agreement do not meet EU standards. The agreement will be vote by the Parliament as a whole in April's plenary session.