On Thursday, the European Parliament adopted the PNR directive, which obliges airlines to provide national authorities with passenger details for all flights from third countries to the European Union and vice versa and retain the data for six months. While UK Home Secretary Theresa May has been in favor of PNR since 2011, the directive was rejected in the European Parliament back in 2013 due to privacy concerns.
"The [PNR] Directive meets the UK’s lobbying requirements," the spokesperson said, answering a question on whether the UK Home Office welcomes the adoption of the PNR directive.
The new EU legislation is aimed at assisting in the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of serious offenses, particularly linked to terrorism. The new system is expected to be implemented in the EU member countries over two years.
The adoption of PNR by the European Parliament comes against the background of the deadly Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks that took place in November 2015 and in March 2016, respectively.
The violent acts prompted EU authorities to step up security measures and enhance the exchange of information between the bloc's member countries.