Legislative Observatory
European Parliament
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Interoperability between EU information systems (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration)

2017/0352(COD)

PURPOSE: to establish a framework for interoperability between EU information systems (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration).

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.

In addition to these existing systems, the Commission proposed in 2016-2017 three new centralised EU information systems:

  • the Entry/Exit System (EES);
  • the proposed European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS);
  • the proposed European Criminal Record Information System for third-country nationals (ECRIS-TCN system).

These six systems are complementary and — with the exception of the Schengen Information System (SIS) — exclusively focused on third-country nationals.

By simultaneously cross-checking information in different databases and streamlining access by law enforcement, the new tools will quickly alert border guards or police if a person is using multiple or fraudulent identities.

This proposal is presented in combination with its sister proposal.

CONTENT: the specific objectives of this proposal are to:

  • ensure that end-users, particularly border guards, law enforcement officers, immigration officials and judicial authorities have fast, seamless, systematic and controlled access to the information that they need to perform their tasks;
  • provide a solution to detect multiple identities linked to the same set of biometric data, with the dual purpose of ensuring the correct identification of bona fide persons and combating identity fraud;
  • facilitate identity checks of third-country nationals, on the territory of a Member State, by police authorities; and
  • facilitate and streamline access by law enforcement authorities to non-law enforcement information systems at EU level, where necessary for the prevention, investigation, detection or prosecution of serious crime and terrorism.

Scope: the proposal concerns EU information systems for centrally managed security, borders and migration management, i.e. the three systems that already exist (the Schengen Information System (SIS) ), the Eurodac system and the Visa Information System (VIS) and the three systems proposed in 2016-2017 (EES, ETIAS and ECRIS-TCN).

The scope also includes Interpol’s Stolen and Lost Travel Documents (SLTD) database, which pursuant to the provisions of the Schengen Borders Code is systematically queried at the EU’s external borders, and Interpol's Travel Documents Associated with Notices (TDAWN) database.

In order to achieve the objectives of this proposal, four interoperability components need to be established:

  • European search portal – ESP;
  • Shared biometric matching service - shared BMS;
  • Common identity repository – CIR;
  • Multiple-identity detector - MID.

In addition to the above components, this draft Regulation also includes the proposal to:

  • establish a central repository for reporting and statistics (CRRS) to enable the creation and sharing of reports with (anonymous) statistical data for policy, operational and data quality purposes;
  • establish the Universal Message Format (UMF) as the standard that would be used at EU level to orchestrate interactions between multiple systems in an interoperable way, including the systems developed and managed by eu-LISA;
  • introduce the concepts of automated data quality control mechanisms and common quality indicators, and the need for Member States to ensure the highest level of data quality.

BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: the total budget required over nine years (2019-2027) amounts to EUR 424.7 million.