Activites

• 2009/04/07 Final act published in Official Journal
  • Decision 2009/316
  • OJ L 093 07.04.2009, p. 0033
• #2936
• 2009/04/06 Council Meeting
• 2009/04/06 End of procedure in Parliament
• 2009/04/06 Act adopted by Council after consultation of Parliament
• #2899
• 2008/10/24 Council Meeting
  • 2899 summary

    The Council has agreed on a general approach on the proposal for the establishment of a European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS).This proposal is a follow-up to the draft Framework Decision on the exchange of information extracted from criminal records between Member States of the European Union which was adopted by the Council in June 2007 (see CNS/2005/0267). The purpose of the Framework Decision is to ensure that a Member State is able to provide the judicial authorities of another Member State of the EU with information on the criminal records of its nationals.A pilot project is currently being conducted by 14 Member States with a view to interconnecting their criminal records. The results achieved in this context will provide a valuable basis for further work on computerised exchange of information at European level.

• 2008/10/09 Results of vote in Parliament
  • Results of vote in Parliament
  • T6-0465/2008 summary

    The European Parliament adopted, by 542 votes to 40 with 19 abstentions, a legislative resolution amending the proposal for a Council decision on the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) in application of Article 11 of Framework Decision 2008/XX/JHA. The report had been tabled for consideration by Luca ROMAGNOLI (NI, IT) on behalf of the Committee on Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs.  The main amendments-adopted under the consultation procedure- are as follows :Commission's role: in order to ensure efficient operation of ECRIS, the Commission shall provide general support and monitoring services and verify that the measures set out in Article 6 (Implementing Measures) are correctly implemented. Members stated that the Commission has both an overview of the situation and the relevant technical expertise, and must therefore play a coordinating and supervisory role in the implementation of the interconnection system.Information: Parliament made the inclusion of a short description of the constitutive elements of the offence mandatory (rather than optional) in the information on national convictions, sanctions and measures. It felt that this would make the exchange of information between the respective Member States more effective. Translation: the translation of a description of a national offence from the original language of submission shall be the task and responsibility solely of each individual Member State requesting a translation and shall not be done by ECRIS. Once a translation has been completed, ECRIS shall offer the option of adding it to the database.Comitology: Parliament deleted the provisions on comitology and inserted a clause stating that where necessary, and in accordance with Article 34(2)(c) and Article 39 of the EU Treaty, the Commission shall propose that the Council adopt all the measures needed to ensure an optimum functioning of ECRIS and its interoperability with national systems, Members considered that the procedure proposed by the Commission, which would operate through a committee chaired by the Commission itself, is wholly outside the scope of Title VI of the Treaty on European Union, and would give rise to the creation of secondary legal bases not provided for in the Treaty itself. The Court of Justice (Case C-133/06) has recently confirmed the principle that the rules regarding the manner in which the Community institutions arrive at their decisions are laid down in the Treaty and are not at the disposal of the Member States or of the institutions themselves. The system established in Title VI, and in particular the combined provisions of Articles 34 and 39, in fact provides that any measures implementing decisions must be adopted in accordance with the procedure indicated in Article 39.Lastly, a recital states that the reference tables contained in Annexes A and B do not in any way aim to harmonise the types of offence or the sanctions set out therein, which will continue to be governed by national law.

• 2008/09/19 Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading
  • A6-0360/2008
• 2008/09/15 Vote in committee, 1st reading/single reading
• #2887
• 2008/07/24 Council Meeting
  • 2887
• 2008/06/19 Committee referral announced in Parliament, 1st reading/single reading
• 2008/05/27 Legislative proposal published
  • COM(2008)0332 summary

    PURPOSE: the establishment of a “European Criminal Records Information System” (ECRIS).PROPOSED ACT: Council DecisionBACKGROUND: in June 2007 the Council reached political agreement on a proposed Framework Decision on the organisation and content of the exchange of information extracted from criminal records between Member States. (See CNS/2005/0267). Once adopted this Framework Decision will require further measures for its implementation, in particular the setting up of a computerised system of information exchange as set out in Article 11 of the said Framework Decision.CONTENT: the purpose of this proposal, therefore, is the establishment of an electronic “European Criminal Information System” (ECRIS) in order to implement Article 11 of the Framework Decision on the organisation and content of the exchange of information extracted from criminal records between Member States. Information on convictions is currently exchanged according to the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters adopted by the Council of Europe in 1959. This system has a number of important short-comings. As a result national courts frequently pass sentence on the sole basis of past convictions featuring in national registers only, without any knowledge of convictions in other EU Member States. In short, the proposal sets up elements of a standardised format for the electronic exchange of information extracted from criminal records with the following main elements:ECRIS: the proposal lays down the rules concerning: technical architecture, operation and use of ECRIS, as well as the various responsibilities that stem from its functioning. ECRIS will be based on a decentralised architecture. Criminal data will stored on Member States’ databases only and no direct online access to criminal records of other Member States will be possible. The S-Testa network has been chosen as a pilot project and this choice will be confirmed in the first stage of the project. Protocols determining information exchange between national databases will be adopted through comitology (regulatory procedure). Responsibility for operating national criminal records will remain the responsibility of the Member States. Any expenditure concerning infrastructure communication will be covered by the general budget of the European Union and existing EU financial programmes are available to support ECRIS.Transmission: the proposed Decision creates a standardised European format of transmission regarding information on convictions. This allows data to be exchanged in a uniform, electronic manner that allows for machine translation. The Member States will be required to refer to various offences and sanctions according to codes set out in Annex to the Decision when notifying other Member States (Annex A: Offences categories; Annex B: Sanctions categories). Some flexibility has been built into the system to allow for offences or sanctions that can not be classified easily.Information on national convictions, sanctions and measures: the Member States will be required to enter national offences and sanctions in each category set out in Annex A and B respectively. This should be accompanied by a brief description of national penalties and measures. A list of national criminal courts should also be provided in order to allow for the automatic translation of names. Updates will have to be posted on a regular basis. Information will be accessible to national judicial authorities through any available electronic channels. On a final point, the implementation and operation of ECRIS will have budgetary implications. These costs, however, will be covered to a large extent by the specific program “criminal justice” as part of the “Fundamental Rights and Justice” programme.

  • DG {'url': 'http://ec.europa.eu/justice/', 'title': 'Justice'}, BARROT Jacques

Documents

• Legislative proposal published: COM(2008)0332
• Debate in Council: 2887
• Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading: A6-0360/2008
• Results of vote in Parliament: Results of vote in Parliament
• Decision by Parliament, 1st reading/single reading: T6-0465/2008
• Debate in Council: 2899
• : Decision 2009/316
• : OJ L 093 07.04.2009, p. 0033

History

(these mark the time of scraping, not the official date of the change)