This week, the European Commission made a Recommendation to the Council of the European Union that negotiations should be opened with two non-EU Nordic states (and Switzerland) to agree on the text of international agreements for the transfer of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data between the EU and those third states.
At present, despite the EEA Agreement being in place between the EU, its Member States, and Iceland and Norway (and Liechtenstein), which contains many aspects relating to transport, it does not include PNR data.
The purpose behind PNR agreements, according to the Commission, is to strengthen the detection, investigation, and prosecution of serious offences, including terrorism. Any agreements that the EU concludes with third states must respect high protection standards with in-built safeguards, including respect for fundamental rights, as guaranteed by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The EU only has three international agreements on PNR data to do: with Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom. The proposed agreement with Canada was shot down by the CJEU in Opinion 1/17. The Council has previously authorised the opening of negotiations with both Japan and Mexico also.
Internally within the EU, there is already the PNR Directive (2016/681), but given the legal basis is the AFSJ provisions of the EU Treaties, both Iceland and Norway are thus not bound to incorporate that Directive into their national legal orders. Given that Iceland and Norway are part of the Schengen Area, however, the exchange of relevant information for the purposes of a common area without internal frontiers, to safeguard their collective external border, there is, arguably, an imperative to enhance the EEA Agreement with supplementary international agreements on PNR data.
The next step is for the Council to consider the Commission’s recommendation.
More on the Commission’s Recommendations to the Council in respect of a proposed international agreement with Iceland can be found here, and with respect to Norway here.