REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning the exchange through the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) of information extracted from criminal records between the Member States
Date: 2020-12-21
Institutions: Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers
Subjects: EU Member State, EU police cooperation, criminal record, data transmission, exchange of information, information system, judicial cooperation in criminal matters in the EU, statistics

EN 

  EN 

   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 21.12.2020  COM(2020) 778 final  REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL concerning the exchange through the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) of information extracted from criminal records between the Member States {SWD(2020) 378 final}  
 
 
1. Introduction 

The  purpose  of  the  European  Criminal  Records  Information  System  (ECRIS)  is  to  improve 
the security of citizens within the EU Area of Freedom, Security and Justice, by enabling an 
efficient  exchange  between  the  Member  States  of  information  on  previous  criminal 
convictions  handed  down  by  criminal  courts  in  the  EU.  ECRIS  became  operational  in 
April 2012. 
regulated  by  Council  Framework  Decision  2009/315/JHA  of 
26 February 2009  on  the  organisation  and  content  of  the  exchange  of  information  extracted 
from the criminal record between Member States1, and by Council Decision 2009/316/JHA of 
6 April 2009 on the establishment of the European Criminal Records Information System2.   

is 

It 

On  29  June  2017  the  Commission  adopted  its  first  Statistical  Report  in  accordance  with 
Article 7 of Council Decision 2009/316/JHA, which covered the period from April 2012 to 31 
December 2016. 3  

The present Report is the second statistical report of the Commission concerning the exchange 
through  ECRIS  of  information  extracted  from  the  criminal  records  between  the  Member 
States.  Its  purpose  is  to  present  the  compliance  of  the  Member  States'  exchanges  with  the 
ECRIS legal framework and to identify any issues regarding the efficiency of the system, with 
a view to remedying the situation. The Commission reserves the right to take all appropriate 
action  to  ensure  that  the  Member  States  fulfill  these  legal  obligations  as  set  in  Framework 
Decision 2009/315/JHA. 

1.1. ECRIS statistics  

This report gives an overview on the use of ECRIS since  1 January 2017 to 31 December 
2019,  with  an  emphasis  on  2019.  It  is  accompanied  by  Commission  Staff  Working 
Document SWD/2020/378 (further: SWD). While most of the tables and graphs in the report 
refer  to  2019,  the  ones  for  2017  and  2018  can  be  found  in  the  accompanying  SWD.  Some 
statistics  provided  in  the  report  give  a  general  overview  over  the  eight-year  period  of 
operation of ECRIS, since its “go live” in April 2012.  However, the comparative statistical 
data  on  all  Member  States,  and  the  individual  Member  States'  statistical  tables  (provided  in 
section 3 of the SWD) cover ECRIS exchanges in the years 2017-2019. Where relevant, the 
statistics of 2016 were used as a reference point. The report also includes data on the United 
Kingdom, as a EU Member State, until 2019.   

The  report  is  based  on  the  statistics  automatically  generated  by  the  system  and  sent  by  the 
Member  States  to  the  Commission.  Out  of  the  233 statistical  indicators  established  for 
ECRIS, a choice was made to publish only the most relevant and meaningful information. In 
addition,  the  Member  States  were  requested  to  communicate  statistics  on  the  number  of 
convictions  of  nationals  of  other  Member  States  (EU  non-nationals)  handed  down  on  their 
territory, in order to be able to provide an overview of the implementation of the notification 
procedure. The report includes conviction data received from 23 Member States4.  

1  
2  

3  
4  

OJ L 93, 7.4.2009, p. 23 - as amended by Directive (EU) 2019/884, OJ L 151, 7.6.2019, p. 143. 
OJ L 93, 7.4.2009, p. 33. This Decision will be replaced by Directive (EU) 2019/884 with regard to the 
Member States bound by this Directive - as from 28 June 2022. 
COM/2017/341 final; SWD/2017/242 final. 
The Commission did not receive data from Cyprus, Greece, Denmark, Lithuania and Slovenia. 

2 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
 
1.2. General principles of the ECRIS system 

ECRIS  is  based  on  a  decentralised  architecture,  where  criminal  records  information  is 
exchanged electronically, exclusively between the Central Authorities of the Member States. 

Each Member State having convicted a citizen of another Member State is obliged to notify 
through  ECRIS  the  Member  State  in  question  (hereinafter  Member  State  of  nationality),  as 
soon  as  possible,  of  all  information  related  to  the  conviction  (notifications  on  new 
convictions), and any subsequent updates (notifications on updates). 

The Member State of nationality thus maintains a central repository of all convictions handed 
down against its nationals by criminal  courts in the other EU Member States, in  addition to 
any convictions handed down in the Member State itself. The Member State of nationality is 
then obliged to store and update all information received through ECRIS, and to provide full 
criminal records information (replies to requests) when requested by another Member State 
(requests for information), within short deadlines of 10 or 20 days.5 

2. ECRIS exchanges in numbers 

2.1. Connected Member States 

ECRIS is a decentralised system where all Member States should be interconnected with each 
other.  A  Member  State  is  considered  connected  to  ECRIS  if  it  exchanges  criminal  records 
information  with  at  least  one  other  connected  Member  State.  All  Member  States  are 
currently  connected  to  ECRIS  and  exchange  criminal  records  information  with  -  on 
average - 24 other Member States.6 
The total  possible number of interconnections is  756 (27*28)7. Although  all Member States 
are  now  connected  to  ECRIS,  only  one  Member  State  is  effectively  exchanging 
information  with  all  the  others  through  ECRIS  (ES).  For  the  majority  of  the  Member 
States, one or two interconnections are still missing. 

The  ECRIS  system  started  in  2012  with  a  total of  173  interconnections  out  of  756  possible 
(with  28 Member  States  “live”).  By  the  end  of  2019,  670 interconnections  had  been 
established, representing 90% of the total number of possible interconnections8.  

Nevertheless, the ultimate goal is not  yet completely achieved, as not all Member States  are 
connected to and exchange information with all the other Member States through ECRIS.  

2.2. Total number of messages exchanged 

For a detailed description of general principles of the exchange of information via ECRIS see the SWD, 
section 1. 
For the history of connections to the ECRIS network see the SWD, section 2.1. 

This amount takes into account 28 Member States. 
For the evolution of the interconnections over the years see the SWD, section 2.1. 

5  

6  

7  
8  

3 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
The  graph  below  illustrates  the  rapidly  growing  yearly  volume  of  messages  exchanged 
between  the  connected  Member  States  since  the  ECRIS  "go  live"  in  April  2012  until 
31 December 2019. It needs to be noted that there were only 8 months of activity in 2012. 

From  2  million  messages  exchanged  by  all  interconnected  Member  States  in  2016,  the 
number reached nearly 4,2 million in 2019 with an average of 348.000 messages per month. 
All types of messages are included in these volumes: notifications, updates, requests, replies, 
denials, other replies, exchanges of additional information, etc.  

The graph below presents the trend of notifications, requests and replies to requests over the 
eight  years  of  ECRIS  operation.  Only  notifications  on  new  convictions  were  taken  into 
consideration,  without  updates.  Replies  include  request  replies,  request  denials  and  other 
replies9.  

9

Other replies are for example replies with multiple persons found, with a person not being a national of 
the requested Member State, etc. 

4 

 
 
 
                                                      
  
The last three years have brought a radical change in the proportions between the number 
of notifications on new convictions, requests and replies to requests. In 2016 the numbers 
were  almost  equal  for  each  of  these  three  categories  and  amounted  roughly  to  350.000  per 
year per category. In 2019 the number of requests for information and the related number of 
replies to requests were over three times higher than the number of notifications. 

In 2017 the number of notifications on new convictions has dropped and remained at the 
level of around 310.000 until 2019. This downward tendency is surprising in the light of the 
increasing  number  of  interconnections  between  the  Member  States.  As  indicated  in 
section 2.4. below, some Member States had problems with notifying all new convictions. 

In contrast, the number of requests for information and the related replies to requests has 
tripled  since  2017  –  and  reached  1  million  for  each  of  these  categories  in  2019.  This 
dramatic increase in the requests for information is due mostly to the shift in the use of 
ECRIS, which is not anymore mainly used for the purpose of criminal proceedings, but 
also more and more for purposes other than criminal proceedings. For further details, see 
section 2.8. It is also a positive sign of rising awareness in the Member States of the need to 
use ECRIS to request information in the course of criminal proceedings in order to be able to 
take account of previous convictions, in line with Framework Decision 2008/675/JHA10. 

2.3. Number of notifications, requests and replies per Member State 

The  graph  below  illustrates  the  number  of  notifications  on  new  convictions,  requests  for 
information and replies for all interconnected Member States in 2019.11  

10  
11  

OJ L 220, 15.8.2008, p. 32. 
For the years 2017 and 2018 see the SWD, section 2.2. 

5 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
Similar to the previous years, the most active Member States in terms of the total volume of 
these three types of message were those indicated below. 

The  figures  demonstrate  significant  differences  between  the  Member  States'  ECRIS 
activities and workload. 

Some  Member  States  request  information  considerably  more  often  than  they  are 
requested to provide information,: e.g. DE (745.000 requests sent, 32.400 requests received), 
UK  (91.000  sent,  31.500  received)  and  CZ  (38.500  sent,  24.700  received).  Other  Member 
States are confronted with a significant number of requests, while they send fewer requests: 
e.g. PL (197.300 replies given, 15.400 requests sent), RO (170.000 versus 1.200), IT (99.500 
versus 1.500), HR (63.300 versus 3.000), SK (41.000 versus 900), HU (37.400 versus 500). 
Some  other  Member  States  send  high  volumes  of  notifications  on  new  convictions  to  the 
Member States of the offender's nationality, while they send fewer requests themselves: e.g. 
BE (36.300 notifications sent, 5.200 requests sent), IT (25.700 notifications, 1.500 requests). 

6 

 
 
 
 
 
 
2.4. Notifications 

The  graph  below  presents  the  volume  of  notifications  issued  by  all  interconnected  Member 
States  in  2019, broken down by notifications on new convictions and notifications updating 
previously sent notifications.12  

The  volume  of  notifications  varies  considerably  among  Member  States,  from  nearly 
112.000 (DE) to zero notifications on new convictions (MT, PT) per year. There are mainly 
two factors to be taken into account in the analysis of these variations: the size of the country 
and  the  number  of  convictions  of  nationals  of  other  Member  States  (EU  non-national 
population)13. 

The most active Member States in terms of sending notifications on new convictions were 
the Member States indicated in the table below. 

12  
13  

For the years 2017 and 2018 see the SWD, section 2.3. 
See Eurostat-statistics: https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=File:Non-
national_population_by_group_of_citizenship,_1_January_2019.png 

7 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
 
Taking  into  consideration  all  notifications  sent,  including  notifications  on  updates,  DE 
remains at the first position, but the ranking changes. 

Notifications  on new convictions and notifications on updates  accounted respectively for 
58% and 42% in 2019. In total, 230.000 notifications of updates were sent that year.14 It is 
worth  pointing  out  that  before 2017,  updates  accounted  only  for  about  one  fourth  of  all 
notifications. The present significant increase in updates for many Member States should be 
considered  a  positive  sign  of  their  awareness  of  the  importance  of  communicating  the 
subsequent changes on initial notifications.  

The  proportion  between  notifications  on  new  convictions  and  on  updates  differs 
significantly  among  the  Member  States,  from  updates  being  three  times  as  high  as 
notifications  (e.g.  FR,  PL)  or  twice  as  high  as  notifications  (e.g.  AT,  CZ),  through  roughly 
equal  amounts  for  both  of  these  categories  of  messages  (e.g.  ES,  NL,  IT,  HU,  FI,  SK)  to 
updates constituting a tiny part of all notifications (e.g. CY, DK, IE, RO). For DE, FR and ES, 
which sent the highest number of all notifications, the updates amounted respectively to about 
34%/ 76%/ 57% of all their notifications sent in 2019. 

The first Statistical Report identified two main problems: i.e. (i) many Member States do not 
send  notifications  on  new  convictions  at  all  or  send  a  low  volume  and  (ii)  numerous 
Member  States  do  not  send  updates  on  their  previously  sent  notifications  at  all  or  send  a 
low volume. These two problems also emerge from the detailed analysis of the statistical data 
for 2017-2019. However, this time these issues are even more prominent, as they concern a 
higher number of Member States. 

Firstly,  many  Member  States  do  not  send  notifications  on  new  convictions  at  all  (PT  in 
2019 and 2018, MT in  2019 and 2017,  EE in  2018, EL in  2017)  or send a low volume of 
such  notifications  in  relation  to  their  EU  non-national  population  and  the  number  of 
convictions (BG, EE, IE, LT, LU, NL, RO in 2019; BG, IE, LU, LT, RO, SI,  SE, MT, EL, 
UK  in  2018;  BG,  EE,  IE,  LT,  LU,  RO,  SI,  SE,  PT,  UK  in  2017).  As  a  result,  these  non-
notified convictions were not registered in the Member State(s) of nationality. 

Secondly,  numerous  Member  States  do  not  send  updates  on  their  previously  sent 
notifications at all (BG, EE, EL, LV, LU, MT, PT, SI in 2019; BG, DK, EL, SI, PT, MT, LV, 
LU,  IE,  EE  in  2018;  DK,  EE,  EL,  LV,  LU,  BG  in  2017)  or  send  a  low  volume  of  such 
messages  (IE,  RO,  CY  in  2019;  RO,  CY  in  2018;  SI,  RO,  PT,  MT,  IE,  HR,  CY  in  2017). 
Failure  to  send  updates  by  the  convicting  Member  State  results  in  the  processing  of  not 

14  

For more details see the SWD, section 2.3. 

8 

DE31.9%DE31.5%DE40.8%ES16.2%ES19.2%FR17.9%BE9.4%IT16.2%ES16.9%FR7.5%FR14.3%IT11.3%UK7.4%BE10.1%BE9.7%201720182019Most active Member States in terms of notifications sent on all convictions: 
 
 
 
                                                      
updated,  unrealiable  information  by  the  Member  State  of  nationality,  including  its 
dissemination.15 

2.5. Requests for information 

The graph below compares the volume of requests for information sent by all interconnected 
Member States in 2019 with the volume of replies received to these requests.16 

As  presented  above  in  section  2.2,  the  general  number  of  requests  for  information  has 
tripled since 2017 – and reached 1 million in 2019.  

The volume of issued requests varies considerably among Member States, from 745.000 
(DE) to 6 requests (EL) per year. The rise in the total number of requests is due mostly to DE, 
which has increased its number of requests by over 5 times. ES, LT, NL and PL have doubled 
their  numbers.  The  main  factor  to  be  taken  into  account  in  the  analysis  of  the  variations 
between the Member States’ numbers of requests is the number of nationals of other Member 
States residing in a given Member State. 

Similar to previous years, the  most active Member States in terms of  issued requests were 
the following. 

15  

16  

For a detailed analysis of individual Member State statistics on convictions and notifications  - see the 
SWD, section 3. 
For the years 2017 and 2018 see the SWD, section 2.4. 

9 

 
 
 
 
                                                      
Despite  the  significant  increase  in  the  number  of  requests  in  general,  the  problem,  already 
noted in the first Statistical Report, of some Member States sending almost no requests at 
all (EL, CY, MT) or sending a low number of requests in relation to their EU non-national 
population  (BG,  EE,  HU,  IT,  LV,  RO,  SI  in  2017-2019)  still  persists.  This  might  lead  to  a 
situation where criminal courts could pass judgements without the knowledge of convictions 
handed  down  in  other  Member  States,  contrary  to  the  requirements  set  out  in  Framework 
Decision  2008/675/JHA.  In  addition,  the  preventive  effect  of  requesting  criminal  records 
certificates  for  purposes  other  than  criminal  proceedings,  such  as  pre-employment  checks, 
will be diminished. 

It  can  be  also  concluded  from  the  above  data  that  not  all  requests  for  information  are 
responded  to  (see  also  section  2.6.).  In  case  of  the  Member  States  most  active  in  sending 
requests, 5,6% of  DE requests (41.662) and 2,5% of AT requests (945)  in  2019 were never 
responded to, while for the UK and CZ the number of responses received that year exceeded 
the number of their requests. 

2.6. Replies to requests 

The  graph  below  illustrates  the  volume  of  replies  sent  by  all  interconnected  Member  States 
in 2019 in  comparison  to the volume of  corresponding requests for information  received by 
them.17  

17  

For the years 2017 and 2018 - see the SWD, section 2.5. 

10 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
 
The  volume  of  requests  received  and  sent  replies  corresponding  to  them  varies 
significantly among the Member States, from 179.000 (PL) to 646 requests (MT) per year. 
There are mainly two factors to be taken into account in the analysis of these variations: the 
overall  population  per  Member  State,  and  the  number  of  its  nationals  residing  in  other 
Member States. 

The Member States which responded to the highest amount of requests in absolute terms 
(not necessarily the highest in proportion to what they received) were: 

While  all  Member  States  respond  to  requests  in  general,  in  2019  still  over  42.000 requests 
for information were not responded to. In most of the cases, the number of sent replies was 
slightly lower than the number of received requests for information, with on average around 
4.1%, in comparison to 3,6% in 2016. 

Among the Member States which received the highest amount of requests in 2019, BG did not 
respond  to  53%  of  requests  received  by  them  (30.975),  EL  to  38%  (19.564),  IT  to  8,9% 
(9.720) and RO to 1.3% (2.347). For PL and HR the number of responses sent in 2019 was 
actually  higher  than  the  number  of  requests  received,  which  might  have  been  caused  by 
sending a backlog of responses from the previous year.  

In 2019, the Member States with the highest percentage of requests not replied to  were: 
MT  (82%  of  the  requests  received  by  them),  CY  (65%),  BG  (53%)  and  EL  (38%).  For  a 

11 

 
 
 
 
 
detailed analysis of individual Member State statistics on replies to requests  - see the SWD, 
section 3.  

The  consequences  of  violating  the  obligation  to  respond  to  requests  for  information  can  be 
tragic, as pointed out in the previous points. 

2.7. Replies not meeting legal deadlines 
Another issue is that some requests are not replied to within the legal deadlines18. The graph 
below presents an overview for all Member States of the volumes of replies not meeting the 
legal deadlines in 2019, with indication of the replies sent after deadline and the requests with 
expired deadline to reply.19  

In 2019, 190.000 requests were replied to after the legal deadline, which represents 18,4% 
of the total number of requests. In addition, 42.000 requests with expired deadline to reply 
were  registered.  These  high  numbers,  paired  with  the  reference  data  for  2016  (respectively: 
13.800  (3,8%);  13.000),  indicate  an  alarming  increase  of  replies  not  meeting  the  legal 
deadlines. 

This  tendency  concerns  only  a  few  Member  States,  in  particular  those  that  were 
confronted with a huge volume of requests for information, while the great majority of the 
Member States remains under 0,5% of late replies. The Member States having most problems 
to  respect  the  deadlines  in  2019  were:  PL  with  55%  of  their  replies  sent  late  (99.000),  RO 

  See section 1.2 above. 

For more details see the SWD: the table in section 2.6 and individual Member State statistics on late 
replies in section 3. 

18 
19  

12 

 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
(30%; 50.000), HR (43%; 24.600), LV (47%; 6.200), BE (18%; 2.800) and BG (5%; 3.300). 
The problem of requests with an expired deadline to reply, which might  result either in late 
replies  or  in  requests  not  replied  to,  concerned  33%  of  requests  received  by  MT  and  CY, 
13,5% by LV and 8% of those received by PL. 

2.8. Requests for criminal proceedings and other purposes 

The graphs below represent the proportion between the requests for criminal proceedings and 
for other purposes than criminal proceedings from 2012 until 2019. 

13 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
For many years the percentage of requests for other purposes than criminal proceedings was 
at the average level of 20% of all requests. As mentioned above, the years 2018-2019 brought 
a complete shift in the use of the system, which started to be consulted equally often for 
criminal  as  for  other  purposes  (50/50%).  The  average  for  the  whole  ECRIS  operation 
period  is  69%  of  all  requests  for  the  purpose  of  criminal  proceedings  and  31%  for  other 
purposes. 

The  amount  of  requests  for  other  purposes  exceeded  500.000  in  2019,  which  is  over 
6 times more than in 2016. The amount of requests for criminal purposes remained at the 
stable level of around 500.000 as well. 

The  increase  of  requests  for  other  purposes  was  caused  mainly  by  the  strong  growth  of 
requests  made  by  individuals  on  their  own  criminal  records  –  by  over  six  times 
since 2016, amounting to a total of 356.000 requests. The second contributing factor was the 
number of requests for the purpose of recruitment for professional or organised voluntary 
activities  involving  direct  and  regular  contact  with  children,  in  implementation  of 
Directive  2011/93/EU20.  These  requests  amounted  to  115.000  in  2019,  a  significant  rise 
from 7.800 in 2016. DE is the Member State mainly responsible for the increased number of 
requests for other purposes. 

In 2019, most requests for other purposes than criminal proceedings were made by individual 
persons to obtain information on their own criminal records - 70% of requests for other 
purposes  and  35%  of  all  requests  made.  The  next  highest  number  of  requests  related  to 
requests for recruitment in accordance with Directive 2011/93/EU (22% of the requests for 
other  purposes  and  11%  of  all  requests  made  -  in  comparison  with  10%  of  the  requests  for 
other  purposes  in  2016).  The  percentage  of  requests  from  a  competent  administrative 
authority  for  non-criminal  proceedings  dropped  from  14%  of  requests  for  other  purposes  in 
2016  to  3,8%  in  2019  (and  2%  of  all  requests),  to  be  placed  on  the  third  position  with 
19.000 requests. The requests for obtaining a permit to carry weapons amounted to 1,1% of 
the requests for other purposes. Finally, the requests for the important purpose of obtaining a 
different nationality constituted only around 0,9% of requests for other purposes and 0,4% of 
all requests.21 

2.9. Requests concerning EU nationals and Third Country Nationals (TCN) 

The  graphs  below  represent  the  proportion  between  requests  concerning  EU  nationals  and 
TCN per year22 and on average during the whole ECRIS operation period. 

20  

21  

22  

Directive 2011/93/EU on combating the sexual abuse and sexual exploitation of children and child 
pornography, OJ L 335, 17.12.2011, p. 1. 
For more details on the volumes of requests for various categories of purposes in the years 2017 - 2019 
see the SWD, section 2.7. 
See also a table in the SWD, section 2.8. 

14 

 
 
 
 
                                                      
 
On average, 92 % of all requests concern EU nationals and around 8% concern TCN. The 
share of requests for stateless persons is marginal (0,02%). 

Although  the  percentage  of  requests  for  information  on  TCN  has  dropped  since 2016, 
from  10%  to  7%  of  all  requests  in  2019,  the  actual  number  of  such  requests  has  been 
steadily  growing,  to  exceed  69.000  in  2019.  This  phenomenon  is  caused  by  the  significant 
increase  in  requests  for  purposes  other  than  criminal  proceedings  that  concern  mostly  EU 
nationals. 

15 

 
 
  
 
 
 
In  2019  supplementing  legislation  was  adopted23,  establishing  a  centralised  ECRIS-TCN 
system  allowing for efficient identification of the Member State(s) holding  criminal  records 
information on TCN convicted in the EU. Once operarional in 2023, the system is expected to 
support  more  efficient  exchanges  through  ECRIS  of  information  on  TCN  and  to  lead  to  a 
considerable increase of such requests. 

2.10. Replies containing conviction information 

In  the  graphs  below  information  is  given  on  the  proportion  of  the  replies  to  requests 
containing one or more convictions, replies with no convictions and other replies per year24, 
and on average during the ECRIS operation period. 

Since the first year of ECRIS operation, 26% of replies on avarage contained information 
on previous convictions. This means that in one case out of four the person concerned had 
been  already  convicted  one  or  more  times,  proving  the  value  of  ECRIS  as  a  tool  for 
obtaining criminal records information.  

For  many  years,  until  2018,  this  percentage  remained  at  the  stable  level  of  around  30%,  to 
suddenly drop in 2019 till 19%, in paralel to the dramatic growth of the number of requests 
for other purposes than criminal proceedings. It is a positive sign that the majority of persons, 
being  subjects  of  requests  for  information  related  to,  inter  alia,  recruitment,  licenses, 
administrative purposes, have not had any previous convictions. 

In  2019  this  represented  over  188.000  replies  to  all  requests  including  conviction 
information  (in  comparison  with  105.000  in  2016).  The  replies  with  no  conviction 
information constituted on average 74%, and other replies 7%. 

3. Main findings  

23  

24  

Regulation 2019/816/EU establishing ECRIS-TCN, OJ L 135, 22.05.2019, p. 1; Directive 2019/884/EU 
amending Council Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA, OJ L 151, 7.06.2019, p. 143. 
See footnote 9. See also the table in the SWD, section 2.9. 

16 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
                                                      
  In  2019,  all  28  Member  States  were  active  in  using  ECRIS,  but  9.8%  of  the 

possible interconnections were still missing 

After  eight  years  of  ECRIS  operation,  all  28  Member  States  were  connected  to  ECRIS. 
However, only one of them (ES) is exchanging information with the other 27 Member States. 
On average, each Member State has 24 active connections with the others. At the end of 
2019, 90% of the total number of possible interconnections was established. 

  The number of messages exchanged reached 4,2 million in 2019 

From  2  million  messages  exchanged  by  all  interconnected  Member  States  in  2016,  the 
number  doubled  in  2019  to  reach  4,2  million,  with  an  average  of  348.000  messages  per 
month. The last three  years have brought  a radical  change in the proportions between the 
number of notifications, requests and replies to requests – with the number of requests for 
information becoming over three times higher than the number of notifications. 

  Drop  in  the  number  of  notifications  on  new  convictions  -  many  convictions  not 

notified  

In 2017 the number of notifications on new convictions has dropped and remained at the 
level of around 310.000 until 2019. This downward tendency is surprising in the light of the 
ascending number of interconnections between the Member States.  

Some Member States  did not send notifications on new convictions in some  years at all 
(PT, MT, EE, EL) and many sent a low volume of such notifications in relation to their EU 
non-national population and the number of convictions (BG, EE, EL, IE, LT, LU, MT, RO, 
SI, SE, PT, UK). Not sending notifications is contrary to the ECRIS legislation and may have 
serious consequences.  

  Strong increase in requests for information hitting 1 million 

The number of requests for information has tripled since 2017 – to hit 1 million in 2019 
alone. This high increase is due mostly to the shift in the use of ECRIS, not used any more 
exclusively or even mainly for the purpose of criminal proceedings, but also  – on a regular 
basis  -  for  purposes  other  than  criminal  proceedings  (e.g.  pre-employment  screening, 
requests on one’s own criminal record, etc.).  

However, the volume of issued requests varies  considerably  among the Member States, 
from  745.000  (DE)  to  6  requests  (EL)  per  year.  The  rise  in  the  total  number  of  requests  is 
caused mostly by an increase in DE requests.  

  ECRIS  used  for  purposes  other  than  criminal  proceedings  equally  often  as  for 

criminal proceedings 

For many years the percentage of requests for other purposes than criminal proceedings was 
at an average level of 20%. With the new approach of the Member States to the use of ECRIS, 
noted since 2018, the system started to be consulted equally often for both, criminal and 
other  purposes  (50/  50%).  The  amount  of  requests  for  other  purposes  exceeded  half  a 
million in 2019 - over six times more than in 2016. 

This increase of requests was caused mainly by the significant growth of requests made by 
individuals  for  their  own  criminal  records  (356.000  in  2019,  which  constituted  70%  of 
requests  for  other  purposes),  as  well  as  of  requests  for  the  purpose  of  recruitment  for 
activities  involving  contact  with  children,  in  implementation  of  Directive  2011/93/EU 
(115.000 requests - 22% of requests for other purposes).  

  One reply in four reveals previous criminal convictions  

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Since  the  first  year  of  ECRIS  operations,  on  avarage  26%  of  requests for  information  on 
previous convictions of a person were replied to with information on previous criminal 
convictions.  For  many  years,  this  percentage  remained  at  a  stable  level  of  around  30%,  to 
suddenly  drop  in  2019  to  19%,  in  parallel  with  the  dramatic  growth  of  the  number  of 
in  2019,  over 
requests  for  other  purposes 
188.000 replies to all requests contained information on previous criminal convictions. 

than  criminal  proceedings.  Yet  again, 

  Despite the general increase in the number of updates, many updates are still not 

notified 

A significant increase in the number of notifications on updates has been registered, from 
25% to 42% of all notifications, amounting to 230.000 in 2019. It concerns, however, only 
some Member States. 

At the same time, numerous Member States did not send updates on their previously sent 
notifications in some years at all (BG, DK, EE, EL, IE, LV, LU, MT, PT, SI) or sent a low 
volume of such messages (IE, RO, CY, SI, PT, MT).  

  ECRIS not always used to request information on previous convictions 

Despite the dramatic increase in the number of requests in general, the problem noted in 
the first Statistical Report of some Member States sending almost no requests at all (EL, 
CY,  MT)  or  sending  a  low  number  of  requests  in  relation  to  their  EU  non-national 
population (BG, EE, HU, IT, LV, RO, SI) still persists. 

  Requests responded to after the legal deadline 

In 2019, 190.000 requests were not replied to within the legal deadline, which represents 
18,4%  of  the  total  number  of  requests.  This  number  of  late  replies  is  alarming,  as  it  has 
grown almost 14 times in comparison with 2016.  

This problem concerns in particular the Member States that were confronted with a huge 
volume of requests for information: PL, RO, HR, LV, BE and BG. 

  Requests for information not responded to 

While all Member States respond to  requests in  general,  in  2019 still  over 42.000  requests 
for information were not responded to. This number corresponded to 4,1% of all requests, 
in  comparison  with  3,6%  in  2016.  The  Member  States  which  did  not  reply  to  the  highest 
percentage of requests received by them were: MT, CY, BG and EL. 

  Significant differences between the Member States' ECRIS activities and 

workload 

Some  Member  States  send  considerably  more  requests  for  information  than  they  receive 
(DE,  UK  and  CZ),  while  other  Member  States  are  confronted  with  a  significant  workload 
replying  to  these  requests  (PL,  RO,  IT,  HR,  SK  and  HU).  The  workload  for  some  other 
Member  States  is  produced  mostly  by  sending  a  high  number  of  notifications  on  new 
convictions to the Member States of the offender's nationality (BE and IT). 

  Current ECRIS still rarely used for TCN 

On  average,  92%  of  all  requests  concern  EU  nationals  and  around  8%  concern  third 
country  nationals  and  stateless  persons.  The  amount  of  requests  for  information  on  TCN 
has been steadily growing since 2017 to exceed 69.000 in 2019.  

18