Key points
The EESC:
- agrees with the need for effective collection and transfer of advanced passenger information (API) and passenger name records (PNR) data for border management purposes and for combatting illegal immigration, as well as for security reasons, including the need to prevent and combat terrorism and serious crime;
- recognises the need for a harmonised implementation and monitoring of the applicable legal framework to eliminate differences resulting from varied practices of Member States, increase legal certainty, accelerate passenger flow and reduce administrative difficulties for air carriers;
- emphasises the importance of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights when applying the proposed regulations as well as the need to comply with the current data protection standards;
- recommends organising an information campaign and training for air carriers to address the significant legal changes introduced by the new legislation;
- suggests further clarifying the norms on penalties imposed on private operators in the aviation industry and proposes a "threshold of tolerance" at EU level to be considered for errors in collecting and transferring the data. Penalties should be imposed on carriers in case of non-cooperation or failure to achieve minimum, EU-defined, acceptable quality levels for API data.