The Hungarian President of the Republic has vetoed the ratification of the EU-US PNR Agreement

The Hungarian President of the Republic has referred the draft of the Act on ’Agreement between the European Union and the United States of America on the processing and transfer of passenger name record (PNR) data by air carriers to the United States Department of Homeland Security’ with his comments, to the Hungarian Parliament for reconsideration.

According to the Hungarian Constitution in this case the Parliament shall debate the law again and hold another vote on its passage. If adopted for the second time the President of the Republic is required to ratify and promulgate the law within a period of five days.

The main concern of the President was the unsatisfactory level of data protection provided by the Agreement. He believed that it is ambiguous whether the adequate level of protection for personal data is ensured, although it does not mean that the Agreement necessarily restricts, in an unconstitutional manner the protection of personal data. The President stressed that the Hungarian Act ratifying the Agreement shall make it clear: the guarantees of the Hungarian Data Protection Act are upheld. According to his proposal this requirement can be satisfied by the ratifying Act allowing the transfer of personal data only on condition of the data subject’s consent. This provision would not contravene the Agreement as it states ‘this Agreement is not intended to derogate from or amend legislation of the United States of America or the European Union or its Member States’.

Communique by the Office of the President of the Republic of Hungary
http://www.keh.hu/keh_en/communique_returned.html

The Hungarian Constitution (Article 26.)
http://www.mkab.hu/en/enpage5.htm

Act LXIII of 1992 on the Protection of Personal Data and Public Access to Data of Public Interest http://abiweb.obh.hu/dpc/legislation/1992_LXIIIa.htm

Draft of the Act on PNR Agreement (partially in English)
http://www.parlament.hu/irom38/01097/01097.pdf

 

Share

Related articles

Pegasus case: HCLU takes coordinated domestic and foreign legal action

The Hungarian Civil Liberties Union (HCLU) is taking legal action on behalf of six of its clients before the Hungarian authorities, the European Commission, the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg and in Israel. The organisation aims to expose the practice of unlawful secret surveillance, to have international fora declare that the Hungarian regulation of secret information gathering violates fundamental rights and to prevent politically motivated abuses.

Read more »

NGOs Reject "Safe Harbor 2.0," Urge EU and US to Protect Fundamental Rights

Leading human rights and consumer organizations have issued a letter to urge the US and the EU to protect the fundamental right to privacy.

Read more »

Call for urgent amicus briefs!

In April 2014 the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) declared invalid the Data Retention Directive that unified the rules of the retention of selective data by Internet and telephone services and determined the accessibility of data by authorities in the member states. Despite the content of the judgment, the Hungarian act allowing data retention is still in force. In October, 2014 the HCLU started litigation against two major service providers in order to force the Hungarian Constitutional Court (CC) to repeal the unlawful act.

Read more »