2007/866/EC: Council Decision of 6 December 2007 amending Part 1 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications)
Date: 2007-12-06
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Schengen Information System, consultation of information, legal basis

L 340/92

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

22.12.2007

(Acts adopted under the EC Treaty/Euratom Treaty whose publication is not obligatory)

II

DECISIONS

COUNCIL

COUNCIL DECISION

of 6 December 2007

amending Part 1 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications)

(2007/866/EC)

THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,

Having regard to Council Regulation (EC) No 789/2001 of 24
April 2001 reserving to the Council implementing powers with
regard to certain detailed provisions and practical procedures for
examining visa applications (1), and in particular Article 1(2)
thereof,

Having regard to the initiative by the Republic of Portugal,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

The Vision network has been established to allow consul-
the partner
tation between the central authorities of
States for visa applications made by nationals from
sensitive countries.

Formerly, the Vision network operated using the X400
communication system. In order to remain in line with
modern techniques for electronic mail transfer, the mail
the Vision network had to be
transport protocol of
migrated from the X400 to the SMTP system.

(3)

In order to allow for the participation in the system of
the nine Member States which became Members of the
EU in 2004 and which are due to apply the provisions of

(4)

(5)

(6)

the Schengen acquis in full from 21 December 2007, the
Member Sates that joined the EU before 2004 migrated
on 15 October 2007 from the X400 to the SMTP mail
protocol. This protocol has a particular configuration
that now needs to be specified.

It is necessary to update the technical specifications of
the Schengen Consultation Network to ensure that they
reflect these changes.

In accordance with Articles 1 and 2 of the Protocol on
the position of Denmark, annexed to the Treaty on
European Union and to the Treaty establishing the
European Community, Denmark is not taking part in
the adoption of this Decision and is not bound by it
or subject
to its application. As this Decision builds
upon the Schengen acquis under the provisions of Title
IV of Part Three of the Treaty establishing the European
Community, Denmark is to decide, in accordance with
Article 5 of that Protocol, within a period of six months
after the Council has adopted this Decision, whether it
will implement the Decision in its national law.

As regards Iceland and Norway, this Decision constitutes
a development of provisions of
the Schengen acquis,
within the meaning of the Agreement concluded by the
Council of
the European Union and the Republic of
Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway concerning the
association of those two States with the implementation,
application and development of the Schengen acquis (2),
which fall within the area referred to in Article 1(A) of
Council Decision 1999/437/EC of 17 May 1999 on
certain arrangements
that
Agreement (3).

application of

the

for

(1) OJ L 116, 26.4.2001, p. 2.

(2) OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 36.
(3) OJ L 176, 10.7.1999, p. 31.

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(7)

(8)

(9)

As regards Switzerland, this Decision constitutes a deve-
lopment of provisions of the Schengen acquis, within the
meaning of the Agreement signed between the European
Union, the European Community and the Swiss Confe-
deration concerning the Swiss Confederation's association
with the implementation, application and development of
the Schengen acquis, which fall within the area referred to
in Article 1(A) of Decision 1999/437/EC in conjunction
with Article 4(1) of the Council Decisions of 25 October
2004 on the signing, on behalf of the European Union
and the European Community respectively, and on the
provisional application of certain provisions of
that
Agreement.

take part,

This Decision constitutes a development of provisions of
the Schengen acquis in which the United Kingdom does
not
in accordance with Council Decision
2000/365/EC of 29 May 2000 concerning the request
of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern
Ireland to take part in some of the provisions of the
Schengen acquis (1);
the United Kingdom is therefore
not taking part in its adoption and is not bound by it
or subject to its application.

This Decision constitutes a development of provisions of
the Schengen acquis in which Ireland does not take part,
in accordance with Council Decision 2002/192/EC of 28
February 2002 concerning Ireland's request to take part
the Schengen acquis (2);
in some of
Ireland is therefore not taking part in its adoption and
is not bound by it or subject to its application.

the provisions of

(10)

This Decision constitutes an act building upon the
Schengen acquis or otherwise related to it, within the
meaning of Article 3(2) and Article 4(2) of the 2003
and 2005 Acts of Accession respectively,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

In Part 1, point 1.1., of the Schengen Consultation Network
(Technical Specifications), a new point 1.1.4. is hereby inserted,
as shown in the Annex.

This Decision shall apply from 21 December 2007.

Article 2

Article 3

This Decision is addressed to the Member States in accordance
with the Treaty establishing the European Community.

Done at Brussels, 6 December 2007.

For the Council
The President

A. COSTA

(1) OJ L 131, 1.6.2000, p. 43.
(2) OJ L 64, 7.3.2002, p. 20.

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ANNEX

The following text is inserted in Part 1, point 1.1. — General characteristics of the communication system of the
Schengen Consultation Network (Technical Specifications):

‘1.1.4. OPERATIONAL MAILBOX CONFIGURATION REQUIREMENTS

Each Schengen State must configure its VISION OPERATIONAL MAIL SYSTEM according to:

— NETWORK ENVIRONMENT

— DNS/HOST FILE: Since there is no common Domain Name Service, it is necessary to add records

concerning every remote SMTP server

— Firewall: Open incoming and outgoing packets on port 25.

— MIME CONTENT

The mail server encoding for messages will be configured to these values:

— Content-Type: text/plain RFC 2046

— Charset: iso-8859-15 (Western Europe)

— Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable.

— The SMTP domain used is visionmail.eu, where every Schengen State has its own third-level domain “xx”.
This means that each Schengen State must configure its own mail server in order to manage the
xx.visionmail.eu SMTP subdomain name (xx is the two-character Schengen State code).

— The recipient mailbox address will be in the format: operxx@xx.visionmail.eu

For Schengen States with a second mailbox (for sending), the sending mailbox address will be in the
format:

operxx-out@xx.visionmail.eu (Note: this is an optional address).’