While there are harmonised EU rules on the processing of commercial air passenger data for law enforcement purposes, the processing of data on other modes of transport for such purposes is not regulated. This results in a very disparate set of practices among Member States, leading to legal and technical challenges that, ultimately, prevent law enforcement authorities from having effective and timely access to data on maritime and land travel for law enforcement purposes. These legal and operational loopholes are exploited by criminals and terrorists who increasingly use a combination of different modes of transport (so-called 'broken travel') to carry out their criminal activities across the EU external borders and, importantly, within the EU to avoid detection. As Europol's EU Serious and Organised Crime Threat Assessment (SOCTA) report illustrates, the international dimension of the activities of most criminal networks represents a growing phenomenon. Cross-border crimes for which the means of transport play a key role include drug trafficking, trafficking in human beings, migrant smuggling, terrorism as well as property-related crimes. Over the years, the Council has repeatedly called for EU action to harmonise the rules on passenger data on modes of transport other than air traffic: in the 2019 Council Conclusions on widening the scope of the use of passenger name record (PNR) data to forms of transport other than air traffic as well as during the 2023-2024 negotiations on the Advance Passenger Information (API) Regulations and, most recently, with the Council Conclusions on the future priorities for counter-terrorism. During the negotiations on the API Regulations, it did not appear appropriate to simply try to replicate the API/PNR model as established for air transport also for other modes of transport, hence leading to the need for further assessment. Therefore, and upon request of the Member States in the Council, the Commission announced in the 2023 State of Schengen report the launch of two feasibility studies to assess the necessity, proportionality and technical feasibility of requiring the collection and transfer of travel information for maritime and land transport. The objective of this study is to identify possible policy options that could be taken at EU level for the collection, transfer, and processing of travel information on travellers of various types of maritime transport, across the EU/Schengen border and within the EU and the Schengen Area, for the purposes of preventing, detecting, investigating and prosecuting criminal offences. In parallel, a study on travel information on land transport was conducted with similar objectives and drew its conclusion in a separate report.
