2008/910/EC: Council Decision of 27 November 2008 amending Parts 1 and 2 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications)
Date: 2008-11-27
Institutions: Council of the European Union
Subjects: Schengen Information System, consultation of information, legal basis

L 328/38

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

6.12.2008

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

II

DECISIONS

COUNCIL

COUNCIL DECISION

of 27 November 2008

amending Parts 1 and 2 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications)

(2008/910/EC)

(4)

(5)

(6)

(7)

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 Slovenia,

Whereas:

(1)

(2)

(3)

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

In order to achieve a pragmatic approach and to avoid
overburdening the Schengen consultation network by
sending a high number of error messages when a
Member State’s message transfer agent (MTA) seems to
be temporarily unavailable, the resend procedure should
be modified.

In order to avoid inconsistent use of different visa type
codes which could lead to misinterpretations in the
Schengen consultation procedure, a common approach
is needed when visas D + C are subject to the consul­
tation procedure.

Taking into account the inputs from different Member
States and in order to simplify the Schengen consultation
procedure, a single code for each visa type should be
used.

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. Given that 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
in
accordance with Article 5 of the said Protocol, within a
period of six months after the adoption of this Decision
whether it will implement it in its national law.

to decide,

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
the European Union and the Republic of
Council of
Iceland and the Kingdom of Norway concerning the
latters’ association with the implementation, application
and development of the Schengen acquis (2), which fall
within the area referred to in Article 1, point A of
Council
certain
arrangements for the application of that Agreement.

1999/437/EC (3)

Decision

on

(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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Official Journal of the European Union

L 328/39

(8)

(9)

As regards Switzerland, this Decision constitutes a devel­
opment of provisions of the Schengen acquis within the
meaning of the Agreement between the European Union,
the European Community and the Swiss Confederation
concerning the association of the Swiss Confederation
with the implementation, application and development
the Schengen acquis (1), which fall within the area
of
referred
to in Article 1, point A of Decision
1999/437/EC read in conjunction with Article 3 of
Council Decision 2008/146/EC (2) on the conclusion,
on behalf of
that
Agreement.

the European Community, of

this Decision constitutes a
regards Liechtenstein,
As
the Schengen acquis
development of provisions of
within the meaning of
the Protocol between the
European Union, the European Community, the Swiss
Confederation and the Principality of Liechtenstein on
the accession of the Principality of Liechtenstein to the
Agreement between the European Union, the European
Community and the Swiss Confederation on the Swiss
Confederation’s association with the implementation,
the Schengen acquis,
application and development of
which fall within the area referred to in Article 1,
point A of Decision 1999/437/EC read in conjunction
with Article 3 of Council Decision 2008/261/EC (3) on
the signature, on behalf of the European Community,
and on the provisional application of certain provisions
of that Protocol.

(10)

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 (4);
the United Kingdom is therefore
not taking part in its adoption and is not bound by it
or subject to its application.

(11)

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 in some of the provisions of the Schengen acquis (5);
Ireland is therefore not taking part in its adoption and is
not bound by it or subject to its application.

(12) As

regards Cyprus,

this Decision constitutes an act
building on the Schengen acquis or otherwise related to
it within the meaning of Article 3(2) of the 2003 Act of
Accession.

(13)

This Decision constitutes
an act building on the
Schengen acquis or otherwise related to it within the
meaning of Article 4(2) of the 2005 Act of Accession,

HAS ADOPTED THIS DECISION:

Article 1

Part 1 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifi­
cations) is amended as shown in Annex I.

Article 2

Part 2 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifi­
cations) is amended as shown in Annex II.

This Decision shall apply from 1 February 2009.

Article 3

Article 4

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

Done at Brussels, 27 November 2008.

For the Council
The President

M. ALLIOT-MARIE

(1) OJ L 53, 27.2.2008, p. 52.
(2) OJ L 53, 27.2.2008, p. 1.
(3) OJ L 83, 26.3.2008, p. 3.
(4) OJ L 131, 1.6.2000, p. 43.

(5) OJ L 64, 7.3.2002, p. 20.

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Official Journal of the European Union

6.12.2008

Part 1 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications) is hereby amended as follows:

ANNEX I

1. point 1.2 shall be replaced by the following:

‘1.2. AVAILABILITY OF THE TOTAL SYSTEM

As a matter of principle Vision is designed as a system running 24 hours a day, seven days a week. In the event
of one of the connections breaking down, the MTA, the user agent, and if necessary, the national application,
should have the capacity to store the data to be sent or received via the network for several days. Consequently,
bearing in mind the estimated daily traffic and the potential increases in traffic due to political decisions on visa
matters, the MTA, the user agent, and where necessary, the national application, must meet the following
minimum requirements.

the MTA,

In addition,
the user agent and the national application must be able to cope with possible
breakdowns of other partner systems. They must resend messages which have not been delivered, but not
overload other partner systems by, for example, unnecessary repetition of messages which are thought to have
been lost.’;

2. point 1.2.1 shall be replaced by the following:

‘1.2.1. Strategy to avoid and reduce breakdown-related disruption

If the system breaks down, operation must be resumed within 24 hours. To ensure that operations are
resumed, the following minimum undertakings apply:

— the Schengen States are required to have a service contract guaranteeing repairs to, and/or replacement of,

hardware and software,

— the Schengen States are required to have a backup system,

— the Schengen States are required to equip their MTA with a preventative peripheral device to compensate

any power malfunctions,

— the Schengen States are required to guarantee that MTA and applications hardware and software are not
cut off for any reason other than breakdown or maintenance. In case of regular maintenance, such as
database backups, the maintenance slot shall not exceed a maximum of two hours,

— the Schengen States are to guarantee the availability of sufficient personnel during working hours to ensure

operation of the MTA at the best possible rate,

— the Schengen States are required to distinguish clearly between the test environment and the operational
environment; adapting the test environment should not affect the operational equipment and vice versa,

— adaptations to the Schengen Consultation Network should always be tested in the test environment before

being used in the operational environment.

In addition the system must be able to cope with the following amounts of data:

— store the equivalent of two days operations, i.e. a maximum of 100 Megabytes,

— send up to 30 000 messages and 30 000 delivery reports per day,

— receive up to 30 000 messages and 30 000 delivery reports per day.

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Official Journal of the European Union

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In addition, each Schengen State must distinguish between “retransmitting” and “resending as a new message”.
The term “re-send” in the next chapters (especially 1.2.2) covers both cases, but the following distinction must
be made:

— “retransmitting” means sending again the same message, usually subject to retransmission parameters of the
MTA (e.g. sendmail, MS-Exchange, Lotus Notes). After each retransmission there are no more messages in
the system, the first message is just transmitted again;

— “resending as a new message” means that a new message with the same content is prepared. The
destination point might receive two different messages, but with the same content, if the first one was
held in a queue somewhere.

Schengen States are invited to use the first possibility (retransmitting) wherever possible, to avoid the unne­
cessary multiplying of messages in the system.’

ANNEX II

Part 2 of the Schengen consultation network (technical specifications) is hereby amended as follows:

1.

in point 2.1.4, Heading No 026 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Heading No 026: Type of visa format: code (2)

Codification of the various types of visas defined in the Common Visa Instructions. The entire heading, or part of it,
can be used for the visa sticker.

“B”

“C”

transit visas

short -stay visas

“DC”

long-stay visas valid concurrently as short-stay visas’;

2.

in points 2.1.4 (Form A), 2.1.6 (Form C), 2.1.7 (Form F), the content of row 026 in the fifth column of the table
(‘Examples/Comments’) shall be replaced by the following:

‘C {B|′C′|′DC′}’.