The UK yesterday won an expected victory at a meeting of Justice and Home Affairs ministers when seventeen countries said they would like to include intra-EU flights in a draft directive on passenger name records.
EurActiv previously reported that Germany was a major opponent to this measure and sources reveal this is still the case. They are joined by Austria, Slovenia and Luxembourg.
The UK proposal has struck a chord with many member states, because countries fear they could miss out on a substantial amount of data on suspected terrorists, who are changing the way they travel.
For example, detecting David Headley, the 2008 Mumbai bomber, would not have been possible without the data of an intra-EU flight from Germany to the UK, argues Theresa May, the UK's justice minister, in a letter sent to her Hungarian equivalent Sándor Pintér on 3 March, according to a copy seen by EurActiv.
Though sources insist Germany would not be forced to collect any data on internal flights if it decided to oppose the measure indefinitely, diplomats also argue the UK would be entitled to collect data from individual flights from Germany if these flights were defined as high-risk.
Sources in favour of the proposal agree that suspected criminals are exploiting a security gap in a PNR system that has previously only been agreed with third countries such as the US, Canada and Australia.
At the moment, if a drug trafficker flies from South America to Lisbon, he/she could stay in Portugal for a few days before booking a new flight on a different airline, which would leave a broken trail of PNR data leading others to believe the individual is still in Lisbon.
Though EU officials have held discussions nearly every week on the various arguments put forward by different countries, a final agreement between member states for the proposal has been earmarked for the autumn after the EU's summer lull. Then countries will have to enter into negotiations with the European Parliament.
