PURPOSE: to propose a revised version of the
Entry/Exit System (EES) to speed-up, facilitate and reinforce
border check procedures for non-EU nationals travelling to the
EU.
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: in February 2013, the Commission tabled a
package of legislative proposals on Smart Borders to modernise the
Schengen areas external border management. Since then,
technical, financial and operational concerns on certain aspects of
the design of the systems have been brought to light.
Therefore, the Commission has decided to:
CONTENT: this proposal is part of the broader 'Smart
Borders Package', addressing the role of information systems in
enhancing external border management, internal security and the
fight against terrorism and organised crime. It seeks to
modernise external border management by improving the
quality and efficiency of controls and support Member States with
the increasing numbers of travellers entering and exiting the
EU.
The main differences between this revised
proposal and the 2013 proposals are as follows:
Single system: only one
system is proposed, the Entry Exit System.
Scope of the new Entry Exit System: the scope of the new Entry Exit System includes
border crossings by all third country nationals visiting the
Schengen area for a short stay (maximum 90 days period in any
period of 180 days), both visa-required and visa-exempt travellers,
or eventually, on the basis of a touring visa (up to one
year).
The system will register the name, type of travel
document and biometrics and the date and place of entry and exit.
This will facilitate the border crossing of bona fide travellers,
detect over-stayers and identify undocumented persons in the
Schengen area. The EES will also record refusals of entry of
third country nationals falling within its scope.
Interoperability: this
should be ensured between the EES and VIS in order to achieve more
efficiency and rapidity at border checks.
Biometric identifiers:
while the 2013 EES proposals were relying on ten fingerprints, the
revised EES proposals suggests a combination of four
fingerprints and the facial image as biometric identifiers
introduced from the start of operations of the EES. The four
fingerprints are used at enrolment to check if the third country
national was already registered in the system while the facial
image allows for a quick and reliable (automatic) verification at
subsequent entry that the individual subject to the border control
is the one already registered in the EES.
The Entry-Exit System will replace the current
system of manual stamping of passports which is time consuming,
does not provide reliable data on border crossings and does not
allow the detection of over-stayers or address cases of loss or
destruction of travelling documents.
Data protection and data retention
period: there is a significant
reduction in the volume of personal data recorded in EES: 26 data
items are to be recorded in EES instead of 36. Appropriate data
protection safeguards and strict access rights are foreseen in
accordance with EU data protection rules. The retention time for
stored data is five years. This extended period shall reduce the
re-enrolment frequency.
The facilitation of border crossings: the approach for facilitation is based on the
implementation of self-service systems and e-gates, which
will allow third country nationals to initiate the procedure for
border clearance, to be completed by providing additional
information to the border guard on request. The use of these
accelerators (introduced in the proposal amending the Schengen
Borders Code) is optional for Member States, open to most of the
travellers and does not require the development of any new
system.
In addition there will be a harmonised legal basis
(again introduced in the amendments to the Schengen Borders Code)
for the establishment of national Registered Travellers Programmes
by Member States, on a voluntary
basis.
Law enforcement access:
from the start of operations, Member States' law enforcement
authorities and Europol will have access to the EES, under strictly
defined conditions.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: in the 2013 proposals, EUR 1.1
billion was set aside as an indicative amount for the development
of an EES and an RTP. For the revised proposal, based on the
preferred option of a single EES system including the law
enforcement access, the amount needed has been estimated at EUR
480 million.