The European Parliament adopted a legislative resolution approving the Council position at first reading with a view to the adoption of a regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulations (EU) No 603/2013, (EU) 2016/794, (EU) 2018/1862, (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 Visa Information System.

Reform of the Visa Information System

The Regulation amending the Visa Information System (VIS) aims to further develop the VIS to better respond to new challenges in the field of visa, border and security policies.

The amending regulation has the following objectives:

- to facilitate the visa application procedure;

- to strengthen background checks before a decision is taken on a short or long stay visa and residence permit, as well as identity checks at external border crossing points and on the territory of the Member States; and

- to enhance the internal security of the Schengen area by facilitating the exchange of information between Member States on third-country nationals holding a long-stay visa or residence permit.

The technical amendments to the regulations that form part of the Schengen acquis related to external borders (VIS, Entry/Exit System (EES), European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), SIS Return, SIS Borders and Border Interoperability) are contained in the Regulation amending the VIS.

Consequential amendments

The proposed Regulation lays down the conditions under which the VIS consults data stored in Eurodac , SIS and the European Criminal Records Information System for Third Country Nationals ( ECRIS-TCN ), as well as Europol data, for the purpose of identifying hits in the context of the automated searches specified in the Regulation amending the VIS. The adoption of a separate legal instrument was necessary because of the variable geometry of Member States' participation in EU policies in the area of freedom, security and justice.

The Consequential Amendments Regulation provides for the conditions under which, on the one hand, the visa authorities are able to consult data stored in Eurodac and, on the other, the VIS designated authorities are able to consult Europol data, certain SIS data and data stored in ECRIS-TCN for the purposes of the VIS should be safeguarded by clear and precise rules regarding the access by those authorities to those data, the type of queries and categories of data, all of which should be limited to what is strictly necessary for the performance of the duties of those authorities.

In the same vein, the data stored in the VIS application file should be visible only to those Member States that are operating the underlying information systems in accordance with the arrangements for their participation.

The Europol Regulation will be amended in order to:

- allow Europol to give an opinion following a consultation by the VIS in the context of automated processing, and

- allow VIS authorities designated for the purposes of the VIS Regulation to have indirect access to Europol data on the basis of a hit/no hit system.

The ECRIS-TCN Regulation is amended to:

- include in the data file of a convicted third-country national an indication, for the purposes of the VIS, of whether that national has been convicted of a terrorist offence or a serious criminal offence;

- indicate that the flags will be automatically erased 25 years after its creation, as regards convictions for terrorist offences, and 15 years after its creation, as regards convictions for other serious criminal offences;

- make the details and code of the convicting Member State(s) accessible and searchable by the central VIS system for the purpose of verifications, when hits are identified as a result of automated processing by the VIS;

- authorise, in the event of a hit, the Central System or the Common Identity Data Directory (CIR) to automatically indicate to the competent authority the Member States holding information on the criminal record of the third-country national concerned;

- connect the ECRIS-TCN to the European Search Portal (ESP) created by Regulation (EU) 2019/818 in order to enable automated processing by the VIS;

- granting designated VIS authorities a right of access to the ECRIS-TCN data contained in the CIR for the purpose of carrying out the tasks provided for in the VIS Regulation; and

- keep a log of each ECRIS-TCN data processing operation carried out in the CIR and in the VIS.