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BRUSSELS: The European Union may be a step closer to approving a shared airline passenger record, to detect travellers joining or returning from war in Syria and Iraq.

A new proposal has been put to the European parliament in Brussels but the issue remains controversial with privacy advocates, worried about anti-terror measures going too far.

Europes security services are on the lookout to prevent terror attacks like at Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris and the shootings at a Jewish Museum in Brussels last year both carried out by young Europeans who returned from fighting with extremists in Syria and Iraq.

One prevention tool under debate is an air passenger name record (PNR) that allows intelligence services across Europe access to personal data like methods of payment and addresses.

A data sharing accord already exists between the United States and the EU, but the EU lawmaker championing the proposal says Europe has to step up surveillance of its own, generally open borders.

"We need now to make sure we have enough information to look at patterns of behaviour, said Timothy Kirkhope, a British member of the European Parliament. That is the basis on which we can find criminals and find terrorists in order to protect our citizens. Stop things happening such as the atrocities in Paris recently."

EU governments have yet to approve a so-called PNR system but support from the European Parliament is already divided. This proposal is nothing new - lawmakers at the European Parliament rejected it back in 2013 on the grounds that increased surveillance of airline passengers breached citizen privacy rights.

"We need to deliver whatever is necessary and proportionate to get a higher level of security. But what you are proposing now, the proposal of blanket mass surveillance of citizens, is exactly the opposite of that. It's not delivering that, said Jan Albrecht, a German member of the European Parliament.

Already before the Paris attacks, it was possible to know who is on which plane. We already know it. We have the advanced passenger information. It's there, we can access it, we know who's on the plane. So with regards to known suspects, we can follow them - so why dont we focus on the suspects?"

Opposition to data gathering has been particularly acute in countries like Germany, outraged over revelations of mass surveillance by US intelligence services after 9/11 attacks.

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EU passenger record sharing proposal sparks privacy debate