Abstract

On the 27th of April the EU PNR Directive has finally been adopted. The directive regulating the use of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data in the EU for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime has been a matter of discussion within the European Union for almost a decade. In fact, if on the one hand this directive can be a tool for fighting terrorism and others serious crimes, helping the intelligence agencies of the Member States in detecting patterns of suspicious behaviors to be followed up, on the other hand every collection on a mass scale of personal information must be carefully pondered. This paper aims to examine some possible legal implications of the EU PNR system in the light of the fact that the PNR Directive's provisions must com-ply not only with international human rights standards but also with the latest case law of the Court of Justice on acceptable limitations of the fundamental right to privacy.