PURPOSE: to establish a framework for interoperability between EU information systems (police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration) and amend the legislation in force as a consequence.
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: 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:
Objectives: the proposed Regulation:
By ensuring interoperability, the proposal shall have the following objectives:
Scope: the proposed Regulation applies to Eurodac, the Schengen Information System (SIS) and [the European Criminal Records Information System for third-country nationals (ECRIS-TCN). It also applies to the Europol data to the extent of enabling querying it simultaneously to the EU information systems and to persons in respect of whom personal data may be processed in the EU information systems and in the Europol data.
Consequences for other legal instruments: the proposal includes detailed provisions for the necessary changes to the draft legal instruments that are currently stable texts as provisionally agreed by the co-legislators: the proposed Regulations on ETIAS, on SIS in the field of border checks, and on eu-LISA. It is also proposed to make the necessary changes to the text as it stood on 31 May 2018 for ECRIS-TCN.
However, the two amending proposals on interoperability do not include the amendments relating to Eurodac, the EU asylum and irregular migration database, given that discussions have not yet been concluded on the May 2016 legislative proposal to strengthen Eurodac. Once the co-legislators reach agreement on the legislative proposal to strengthen Eurodac, or have achieved sufficient progress, the Commission will present the related amendments to the interoperability proposals within two weeks.
BUDGETARY IMPLICATIONS: the proposed amendments necessitated an update of the legislative financial statement accordingly.
The total budget required over nine years (2019-2027) is estimated at EUR 461.0 million, which includes the following elements:
EUR 261.3 million for eu-LISA. A specific budget of EUR 36.3 million covers the cost of upgrading the network and the central SIS (Schengen Information System) for the estimated increase of searches that is likely to occur as a result of interoperability;