Charlie Flanagan urges Irish MEPs to vote for counterterrorism law

Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie Flanagan has urged all Irish MEPs to vote for a new counterterrorism law at a key vote in the European Parliament on Thursday amid expectations that a number of Ireland's MEPs will vote against it.

Independent MEP Nessa Childers and Sinn Féin's three MEPs have indicated they will vote against the Passenger Name Records (PNR) directive which will require airlines to share passenger data with authorities, despite claims it could protect European citizens from a terrorist threat.

Speaking ahead of the vote, the Minister said it was time to pass the legislation “to protect the safety of our citizens”.

“The legitimate security forces of our member states have sought this facility. I believe that the proposed legislation is appropriately balanced and it is time the European Parliament passed this legislation,” he said.

He added that recent terrorist atrocities had shown that terrorists and other criminal gangs can be highly mobile, and cross national borders to perpetrate crimes.

Under the proposal, national authorities will be able to access data on passengers which is collected by airlines operating in the European Union.

Credit card details

This includes information such as name, date of birth, credit card details and itinerary. Information indicating the traveller’s ethnicity, gender or religion will not be provided. The data will be stored for up to five years, though after six months those elements that could identify an individual will be rendered invisible.

While the controversial proposal was proposed by the European Commission almost five years ago, it has stalled in the EU legislative process amid concerns from some MEPs in the parliament that it could infringe on citizens' privacy.

Nonetheless, the revelations that many of the suspects involved in the Paris and Brussels attacks passed undetected throughout the EU, has given the proposal renewed momentum, and the law is expected to pass by a large majority when MEPs vote today.

France in particular has been leading calls for the parliament to adopt the new legislation as swiftly as possible.

But privacy campaigners have argued that collecting more data will not prevent terrorism, and instead have called for more investment in policing and better co-operation between security forces in EU member states.

Green MEP and privacy campaigner Jan Philipp Albrecht said that the focus of authorities should be on known suspects, noting that 15 of the 17 recent attackers were already known to police. "Yes, we need to strengthen security . . . but . . . the proposed blank mass surveillance of all travellers is the exact opposite of that," he said yesterday.

Sinn Féin MEP Martina Anderson described the proposal as “invasive and unnecessary”. Fine Gael’s four MEPs are expected to vote in favour of the legislation.