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Abstract
In this article, the debate on passenger name records (PNRs) in European politics will be perceived from a discourse analytical perspective. After the 9/11 attacks, the US government required PNR from aircraft passengers travelling from or to the USA. This, and the negotiations of the European Commission with the USA, led to heated debates in the European political arena. The PNR debate was pursued as part of a broader privacy and security discourse which shifted significantly over the past decade. In order to understand the PNR debate and the assigning of meaning to key political notions such as privacy and security, discourse analysis can be applied. Specific discourse characteristics and techniques – such as the use of metaphors, framing and exclusion – influence the content and outcome of discourses. By reviewing the characteristics of and techniques used in the PNR discourse, this article unveils values and beliefs of European politicians underlying the discourse.
Notes
2 In some instances, politicians directly refer to images: ‘Mr. President, have you seen the photos of the plane crash […]?’
3 The use of metaphors and symbols may be aimed at influencing the debate in a certain direction, but this is not necessarily the case. Metaphors and symbols can, for instance, also be used to provide an example of something.
4 As stated in the Methodology section of this article, the quotes used in the text are examples of a larger group of similar statements made. Of the group of similar statements we only included one as an example.
5 http://www.europarl.europa.eu/sides/getDoc.do?pubRef=-//EP//TEXT+CRE+20030312+ITEMS+DOC+XML+V0//EN&language=EN (accessed 1 August 2014).
6 The USA had announced that airlines which would not provide the requested PNR would be fined.
7 With the ‘push’ method, carriers transmit (push) the required PNR data into the database of the requested authority. With the ‘pull’ method, the requesting authority can reach into the carrier's reservation system and extract (pull) a copy of the required data into their database. See http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-11-60_en.htm.
8 The Council defined ‘terrorist offences’ as offences which ‘are committed by an individual or a group against one or more countries, their institutions or people with the aim of intimidating them and seriously altering or destroying the political, economic, or social structures of a country’.
9 Council Framework Decision, of 13 June 2002, on the European arrest warrant and the surrender procedures between Member States, 2002/584/JHA.
10 The Council may ask the European Parliament to deliver its opinion under the urgency procedure laid down in Article 112 of the European Parliament's Rules of Procedure.