Regulation (EU) 2019/818 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration

What it is

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. Currently, various information systems at EU level (the Schengen Information System ( SIS ), the Eurodac system with fingerprint data of asylum applicants and third-country nationals who have crossed the external borders irregularly or who are illegally staying in a Member State; and the Visa Information System ( VIS ) with data on short-stay visas) are currently not interoperable — that is, able to exchange data and share information so that authorities and competent officials have the information they need, when and where they need it. This risks pieces of information slipping through the net and terrorists and criminals escaping detection by using multiple or fraudulent identities, endangering the EU's internal security and making border and migration management more challenging. 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 (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration) ( 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…

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