Proposal for a Council Regulation on a uniform format for forms for affixing the visa issued by
Member States to persons holding travel documents which are not recognised by the Member
State drawing up the form
(2001/C 180 E/28)
(Text with EEA relevance)
COM(2001) 157 final  2001/0081(CNS)
(Submitted by the Commission on 22 March 2001)
THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European
Community, and in particular Article 62, 2), b), iii) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the Commission,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Parliament,
Whereas:
(1) The harmonisation of visa policy is an important measure
in relation to establishing progressively an area of freedom,security and justice, specifically as regards border crossing.
(2) The forms for affixing visas issued to persons holding travel
documents which are not recognised by the Member Statedrawing up the form do not currently correspond to therequired security standards. For this reason, it is necessaryto harmonise the format for such forms in order to renderthem more secure.
(3) This uniform format must contain all the necessary
information and meet high technical standards, inparticular as regards safeguards against counterfeiting andfalsification; they must also be suited to use by all MemberStates and bear universally recognisable harmonised
security features which are clearly visible to the naked eye.
(4) This Regulation only lays down the description of the
model for the uniform format; this needs to be supple-mented by further technical specifications which are toremain secret in order to prevent counterfeiting and falsifi-cations and which may not include personal data orreferences to such data. Powers to adopt such technicalspecifications should be conferred to the Commission,who shall be assisted by the Committee established byArticle 6 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1683/95 of 29May 1995 laying down a uniform format for visas (
1).
(5) To ensure that the information referred to is not made
available to more persons than necessary, each MemberState should designate a single body having responsibilityfor printing the uniform format, with Member Statesremaining free to change the body, if need be; eachMember State should communicate the name of the
competent body to the Commission and the otherMember States.
(6) With regard to the personal data to be entered on the
uniform formats, it is necessary to ensure compliancewith Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament andof the Council of 24 October 1995 on the protection ofindividuals with regard to the processing of personal dataand on the free movement of such data (
2).
(7) The present Regulation constitutes in relation to the
implementation of the Agreement on the association ofNorway and Iceland a development of the Schengenacquis in the sense of the Protocol integrating theSchengen acquis into the framework of the EuropeanUnion.
(8) Since the measures necessary for the implementation of
this Regulation are measures of general scope within themeaning of Article 2 of Council Decision 1999/468/EC of28 June 1999 laying down the procedures for the exerciseof implementing powers conferred on the Commission (
3),
they should be adopted by use of the regulatory procedureprovided for in Article 5 of that decision,
HAS ADOPTED THIS REGULATION:
Article 1
1. For the purposes of this Regulation, form for affixing a
visa shall mean the document issued by the authorities of aMember State to the holder of a travel document which is notrecognised by that Member State, to which its competent auth-orities affix a visa.
2. The form for affixing a visa shall correspond to the model
set out in the annex.
3. Where the holder of a form for affixing a visa is accom-
panied by his or her dependant(s), it shall be for each MemberState to decide whether separate visa sheets should be issued tothe principal and each of their dependant(s).EN 26.6.2001 Official Journal of the European Communities C 180 E/301
(1) OJ L 164, 14.7.1995, p. 1.(2) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.
(3) OJ L 184, 17 .7.1999, p. 23.
Article 2
The technical specifications for the uniform format for forms
for affixing the visa and the specifications relating to thefollowing shall be established in compliance with theprocedure referred to in Article 5 (2):
a) security requirements including enhanced anti-forgery,
counterfeiting and falsification standards
b) conditions of storage to prevent theft;
c) rules for the filling in of the uniform format for affixing the
visa;
d) other conditions necessary for the implementation of the
uniform format.
Article 3
The specifications referred to in Article 2 shall be secret and
not be published. They shall be made available only to thebodies designated by the Member States as responsible forthe printing and to persons duly authorised by a MemberState or the Commission.
Each Member State shall designate one body having responsi-
bility for printing the uniform format for forms. It shallcommunicate the name of that body to the Commission andthe other Member States. The same body may be designated bytwo or more Member States. Each Member State shall beentitled to change its designated body. It shall inform theCommission and the other Member States accordingly.
Article 4
The format, production and use of the uniform format for
forms shall comply with Directive 95/46/EC of the EuropeanParliament and the Council of 24 October 1995 on theprotection of individuals with regard to the processing ofpersonal data and on the free movement of such data (
1).
Without prejudice to these rules, persons to whom the uniform
format for forms is issued shall have the right to verify thepersonal particulars contained in the uniform format for formsand, where appropriate, to ask for any corrections or deletionsto be made.
No information in machine-readable form shall be given on the
uniform format for forms.
Article 5
1. The Commission shall be assisted by the Committee
instituted by Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 1683/95.
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, the regulatory
procedure laid down in Article 5 of Decision 1999/468/ECshall apply, in compliance with Article 7 thereof.
3. The period provided for in Article 5 (6) of Decision
1999/468/EC shall be one month.
Article 6
The uniform format for form for affixing a visa set out in
Article 1 shall be used by the Member States no later than 2years after the adoption of the measures referred to in Article2(a). However, the validity of authorisations granted alreadyand issued on another format shall not be affected by theintroduction of the uniform format for affixing the visas,unless the Member State concerned decides otherwise.
Article 7
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day
following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the
European Communities .
This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly
applicable in all Member States in accordance with the ECTreaty.EN C 180 E/302 Official Journal of the European Communities 26.6.2001
(1) OJ L 281, 23.11.1995, p. 31.
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