Britain likely to get its way over European air passenger data

Britain has secured the backing of a majority of EU member states to extend the proposed EU directive on passenger name records to include flights within Europe.

UK Immigration Minister Damian Green claimed European Council backing for the UK's campaign to include intra-EU flights in a Commons statement given yesterday.

The statement announced that the UK is opting into the directive despite opposition among Eurosceptic Tory MPs and concern among human rights activists.

Green said 15 member states now back the British position.

He said: "We can enter into negotiations from a position of strength, knowing that we have the support of a majority of other member states on this key issue for the UK."

The main undecided nation is Germany.

He said only certain data would be collected, from high risk routes between a third country and a member state or between member states.

He also assured MPs concerned that the data would be sent to the US that "we will not see random international sharing of information".

Tory Eurosceptic and Commons European Scrutiny Committee chairman William Cash vowed to keep progress on the draft directive "under close scrutiny".

Green revealed the main battle now is over the length of time the data can be stored by national governments, limited in the draft directive to 30 days with the data then anonymised and retained for 10 years.

He insisted Passenger Name Record (PNR) data already collected by airlines would "help our law enforcement agencies to prevent, detect, investigate and prosecute terrorists and other serious criminals".

The data is limited to names, addresses, credit cards or other payment details, as well as the identities of travel partners.