The ALDE Group decided that extra guarantees are required on the EU-US PNR agreement, due to be voted this Thursday in the European Parliament during its plenary session.

Guy Verhofstadt, President of the ALDE Group said: "The agreement as it stands cannot be endorsed, extra assurances need to be provided by the Commission. Notably with regard to the scope of the agreement (Article 4) and strict limitations of the use of data. It must be absolutely clear that PNR data will only be used for the purposes of combating terrorism and serious transnational crime, as stated by the European Parliament, notably in previously adopted resolutions.The interpretation of certain clauses must be clarified, so as to ensure that the use of PNR data for other purposes will be excluded, such as for immigration, custom controls or public health".

"Secondly, the report  foreseen in Article 23 of the PNR agreement must be strengthened and the Commission must carry out a specific scrutiny of the above mentioned scope and data usage delimitations. The European Parliament must be able to verify that such guarantees are effectively being respected".