Policy Observatory

On 25 November the European Parliament voted, by 383 votes to 271, in favour of a resolution to refer the EU-Canada agreement on Passenger Name Records (PNR) to the European Court of Justice (CJEU). The CJEU will now decide on the compliance of the agreement with EU law, in particular the Charter of Fundamental Rights. As explained in previous EDRi-gram articles, PNR data has become an attractive and invasive source for governments to obtain personal data.

The UN General Assembly formally approved a major resolution on the right to privacy yesterday, by consensus. The resolution spotlights the privacy violations that are enabled by advances in technology, overbearing government surveillance, and corporate complicity. As communications have gone global, so too must privacy protections. Privacy rights limited by national borders are increasingly meaningless. This resolution contains strong language that definitively places mass surveillance under international human rights law.

Police are a step closer to gaining broad access to the personal details of anyone flying in or out of Europe after EU lawmakers on Wednesday (11 February) agreed to break a deadlock on a stalled EU bill.

Euro-deputies in Strasbourg voted on a resolution with an amendment to reach an agreement on the EU’s passenger name (EU PNR) record bill by the end of the year.

The European Parliament is going to adopt a Resolution on TTIP. A resolution is a political statement which does not have binding effects. However, a strong resolution from the Parliament could be a step in the right direction.

The Committee on International Trade (INTA) is in charge of the dossier and it will be guided by Opinions from 14 other Committees before it submits its report to Plenary (vote scheduled 18-21 May).

The Austrian Parliament adopted a resolution, urging the government to act against illegal surveillance by secret services like NSA or GCHQ. Besides that, the Parliament wants to see further steps on an European level to create technological independence for Europe in information and communication technologies.

Pieter Omtzigt of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) wrote a report on mass surveillance, as the basis for a draft resolution of the PACE Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights. In his response to the to the report, the Dutch Minister of the Interior Plasterk rejected the proposal of a multilateral “Intelligence Codex”, i.e., a no-spy treaty between European countries, citing it is unrealistic and would irresponsibly limit intelligence collection.