Regulation (EU) 2019/817 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of borders and visa

What it is

to establish a framework for interoperability between EU information systems (borders and visa) and amend the relevant legislation in force as a consequence. PROPOSED ACT: Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council. ROLE OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: the European Parliament decides in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure and on an equal footing with the Council. BACKGROUND: the importance of overcoming the current shortcomings in data management and of improving the interoperability of existing information systems has been stressed on many occasions. Recent terrorist attacks have brought this into even greater focus, highlighting the urgent need for information systems to be interoperable, and to eliminate the current blind spots where terrorist suspects can be recorded in different, unconnected databases under different aliases. BACKGROUND: this proposal seeks to amend the proposal submitted by the Commission in December 2017 for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council establishing a framework for the interoperability between EU information systems (borders and visas) and amending Council Decision 2004/512/EC, Council Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, Council Decision 2008/633/JHA, Regulation (EU) 2016/399 and Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 ( see the summary of the initial proposal dated 12.12.2017 ). This proposal also seeks to amend the original proposal only insofar as it presents the further necessary amendments to other legal instruments that are required under the interoperability proposal. These amendments were identified as necessary in the original proposal but, because of ongoing negotiations between co-legislators on some of the systems concerned, it was not possible to include the necessary amendments in the original proposal. CONTENT: the proposed Regulation, together with the proposed Regulation on interoperability (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration), creates a framework to ensure interoperability between the entry/exit system ( EES ), the Visa Information System ( VIS ), the European Travel Information and Authorisation System ( ETIAS ), Eurodac , the Schengen Information System ( SIS ) and the European Criminal Records Information System for third-country nationals ( ECRIS-TCN ) so that these systems and their data supplement each other. Elements of the interoperability framework : the framework shall consist of the following elements of interoperability: the European search portal (ESP) is the component that would enable the simultaneous query of multiple systems (Central-SIS, Eurodac, VIS, the future EES, and the proposed ETIAS and ECRIS-TCN systems, as well as the relevant Interpol systems and Europol data) using identity data (both biographical and biometric); the shared biometric matching service (shared BMS) would enable the querying and comparison of biometric data (fingerprints and facial images) from several central systems (in particular, SIS, Eurodac, VIS, the future EES and the proposed ECRIS-TCN system); the common identity repository (CIR) would be the shared component for storing biographical and biometric identity data of third-country nationals;…

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