Regulation (EU) 2021/1151

What it is

The Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs adopted the report by Jeroen LENAERS (EPP, NL) on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) 2019/816 and (EU) 2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU information systems for the purposes of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System. On 11 February 2021, the Conference of Presidents took the decision to authorise the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs to split the Commission proposal into two parts and to draw up two separate legislative reports on this basis. As a reminder, Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 of the European Parliament and of the Council established the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) for third-country nationals exempt from the requirement to be in possession of a visa when crossing external borders. It laid down the conditions and procedures for issuing or refusing a travel authorisation under that system. ETIAS enables consideration of whether the presence of those third-country nationals in the territory of the Member States would pose a security, illegal immigration or high epidemic risk. The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) 2019/816 and (EU) 2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU information systems for the purposes of the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS). Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 of the European Parliament and of the Council established the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) for third-country nationals exempt from the visa requirement when crossing the external borders of the Union. ETIAS makes it possible to assess whether the presence of such third-country nationals on the territory of the Member States would pose a security or illegal immigration risk or a high epidemic risk. This Regulation amends Regulations (EU) 2018/816 and (EU) 2019/818 in order to connect the ETIAS central system to other EU information systems and to Europol data and specifies the data that will be exchanged between these EU information systems and Europol data. This data record should have to contain a flag indicating that the third-country national concerned has been convicted in the previous 25 years of a terrorist offence or in the previous 15 years of any other criminal offence listed in the Annex to Regulation (EU) 2018/1240, if they are punishable under national law by a custodial sentence or a detention order for a maximum period of at least 3 years, and in these cases the code of the convicting Member State(s). The flags and the code of the convicting Member State(s) should only be accessible and searchable by the Visa Information System (VIS) and the ETIAS system for verification purposes. A hit in the ECRIS-TCN should not in itself mean that the third-country national concerned has been convicted in the Member States indicated. The existence of previous convictions would have to be confirmed solely on the…

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