National PNR system starts in May

According to turizmusonline.hu, National Passenger Name Records (PNR) system starts to operate in Hungary in May. The European Union supported it with millions of euros.

The data will be stored by the Passenger Information Unit (PIU) – which was created on April 1, 2015 – within the Organized Crime Co-ordination Center. The system costed EUR 5.582 million, and 90% of it was financed by the European Commission – the Interior Ministry told newspaper Vilaggazdasag.

PNR system allows the authorities to gain access to all data of the passenger list of the planes going, arriving or operating in the European Union. It also includes the name, phone number and credit card number. It is planned that the authorities would store the data for six months. The debate on the system has been going on for years, but last year’s terrorist attack in Paris accelerated the process. One of the most controversial issues is the length of the data storage, turizmusonline.hu said.

The European Parliament thinks the ideal length of data storage is 6 years, while the member states think 1 year would be acceptable. Now, it seems that the compromise has been reached and the EP would soon accept it. The airlines interviewed by the paper also support the initiative.

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Source: http://www.turizmusonline.hu