The Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council approved on Friday the compromise text agreed with the European Parliament on the proposal for a Passenger Name Record (PNR) directive.

The directive allows for the use of PNR data for the prevention, detection, investigation and prosecution of terrorist offences and serious crime.

Under the directive, airlines will be obliged to provide the authorities of member states with the PNR data for flights entering or departing from the EU.

It will also allow, but not oblige, member states to collect PNR data on selected intra-EU flights.

After storing the data for six months, it will be masked out and stored for another four and a half years with strict procedure to access the full data.

PNR data is the information provided by passengers to airlines when booking a flight and when checking in on flights, including among other things one's name, flight dates, travel itinerary, ticket information, contact details, method of payment, seat number and luggage information.

The UK and Ireland have opted in to this directive, while Denmark is not participating.

In order to be adopted, the directive has to pass through the relevant parliamentary committee, the European Parliament and the Council.

This is one of the measures taken by the EU on reinforcing the fight against terrorism in the aftermath of the deadly attacks in Paris on November 13, which claimed the lives of 130 people and left hundreds injured.

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