COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EC) No 810/2009, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1860, (EU) 2018/1861, (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/1896 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA, for the purpose of reforming the Visa Information System, and a Regulation amending Regulations (EU) 603/2013, 2016/794, 2018/1862, 2019/816 and 2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU information systems for VIS purposes
Date: 2021-06-04
Institutions: Directorate-General for Migration and Home Affairs, European Commission
Subjects: EU migration policy, EU visa policy, Schengen Information System, border control, cross-border cooperation, exchange of information, external border of the EU, foreign national, illegal migration

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   EUROPEAN COMMISSION  Brussels, 4.6.2021  COM(2021) 303 final 2018/0152 (COD)  COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT  pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union  concerning the position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation amending Regulations (EC) No 767/2008, (EC) No 810/2009, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 2018/1860, (EU) 2018/1861, (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/1896 of the European Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 2008/633/JHA, for the purpose of reforming the Visa Information System, and a Regulation amending Regulations (EU) 603/2013, 2016/794, 2018/1862, 2019/816 and 2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU information systems for VIS purposes  
 
 
2018/0152 (COD) 

COMMUNICATION FROM THE COMMISSION 
TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT 

pursuant to Article 294(6) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union 

concerning the 

position of the Council on the adoption of a Regulation amending Regulations (EC) No 
767/2008, (EC) No 810/2009, (EU) 2016/399, (EU) 2017/2226, (EU) 2018/1240, (EU) 
2018/1860, (EU) 2018/1861, (EU) 2019/817 and (EU) 2019/1896 of the European 
Parliament and of the Council and repealing Council Decisions 2004/512/EC and 
2008/633/JHA, for the purpose of reforming the Visa Information System, and a 
Regulation amending Regulations (EU) 603/2013, 2016/794, 2018/1862, 2019/816 and 
2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU 
information systems for VIS purposes 

1. 

BACKGROUND 

Date of transmission of the proposal to the European Parliament and 
to the Council 
(document COM(2018) 302 final – 2018/0152 COD): 

16 May 2018. 

Date  of  the  opinion  of  the  European  Economic  and  Social 
Committee:  

19 September 2018. 

Date of the opinion of the European Data Protection Supervisor: 

12 December 2018. 

Date of the position of the European Parliament, first reading: 

13 March 2019. 

Date of adoption of the position of the Council: 

27 May 2021. 

2. 

OBJECTIVE OF THE PROPOSAL FROM THE COMMISSION 

The specific objectives of this proposal are to:  

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

facilitate the visa application procedure; 

facilitate  and  strengthen  checks  at  external  border  crossing  points  and  within  the 
territory of the Member States;  

enhance  the  internal  security  of  the  Schengen  area  by  facilitating  the  exchange  of 
information  among  Member  States  on  third-country  nationals  holders  of  long-stay 
visas and residence permits. 

A number of ancillary objectives are also pursued, namely to: 

(4) 

facilitate  identity  checks  of  third-country  nationals,  on  the  territory  of  a  Member 
State, by migration and law enforcement authorities;  

(5) 

make it easier to identify missing persons; 

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(6) 

(7) 

assist  in  the  process  of  identifying  and  returning  any  person  who  may  not  or  no 
longer fulfil the conditions for entry to, stay or residence in the Member States; 

help law enforcement authorities access data of applicants for  and holders of short-
stay visas (which is already possible under current rules), and extend this access to 
holders of long-stay visas and residence permits, where necessary for the prevention, 
investigation, detection or prosecution of serious crime and terrorism, while ensuring 
high standards of data protection and privacy; 

(8) 

gather statistics to support evidence-based European Union migration policy making. 

COMMENTS ON THE POSITION OF THE COUNCIL 

3. 
The position of the Council as adopted in the 1st reading fully reflects the agreement reached 
in  the  trilogue  negotiations  between  the  European  Parliament,  the  Council  and  the 
Commission, as concluded on 16 December 2020.  

The agreement preserves the substantial elements and novelties proposed by the Commission, 
some of which are subject to certain modifications, as outlined below. 

As regards the automated queries in other information systems, the European Parliament and 
the  Council  largely  agreed  with  the  list  of  databases  to  be  queried  by  the  Visa  Information 
System  (VIS)  as  proposed  by  the  Commission1,  albeit  with  conditions  and  additional 
safeguards attached to some of them. More detailed provisions were laid down on the manual 
verification  and  follow-up  of  the  hits,  which  will  be  attributed  to  different  authorities, 
depending on the source and sensitivity of the data that triggered the hit. A delegated act will 
define  the  detailed  rules  for  the  queries  and  verifications.  A  number  of  ‘consequential 
amendments’ bring the legal instruments of the queried information systems in full alignment 
with the new provisions on the automated queries. 

Long-stay visas  and residence permits will be recorded in  the Visa  Information  System and 
subject to automated queries in other information systems already at the time of application, 
not  only  after  having  been  issued.  Access  rights  of  certain  authorities  to  data  of  persons 
having held residence permits for more than 10 years will be limited. 

Regarding  biometrics,  the  European  Parliament  and  the  Council  agreed  on  the  proposed 
lowering of the fingerprinting age for minors from 12 to 6 years, but also introduced an upper 
age limit for fingerprinting at 75 years. At the same time a number of safeguards and access 
limitations  for  children’s  biometrics  will  be  introduced.  Live-taken  facial  images  will  be 
stored  in  the  Visa  Information  System  and  used  for  biometric  matching,  including  to  verify 
the identity of or to identify persons by searching those images against the Visa Information 
System, subject to certain conditions and strict safeguards. 

Specific risk indicators will be integrated as an automated mechanism in the Visa Information 
System  through  which  all  short-stay  visa  applications  will  be  screened.  The  procedures  and 
the  governance  structure  for  these  specific  risk  indicators  are  aligned  with  those  for  the 
European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) screening rules2. 

The European Parliament and the Council accepted the provisions on the carrier gateway for 
checks  of  visas  and  residence  permits  in  the  Visa  Information  System.  Carriers  will  be 

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Entry-Exit System (EES), European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), including 
the  ETIAS  watchlist,  Schengen  Information  System  (SIS),  Eurodac,  European  Criminal  Records 
Information  System  –  Third  Country  Nationals  (ECRIS-TCN),  Europol  data  and  Interpol  Stolen  and 
Lost Travel Document (SLTD) and Travel Documents Associated with Notices (TDAWN) databases. 
Article 33 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240. 

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required  to  inform  passengers  who  are  refused  boarding  on  how  to  request  access  to  Visa 
Information  System  data.  A  derogation  from  those  provisions  will  apply  to  carriers 
transporting  groups  overland  by  coach,  for  the  first  18  months  following  the  start  of  the 
application. 
The provisions of the Visa Information System Establishing Decision3 have been incorporated 
into the Visa Information System Regulation. The existing provisions on data protection have 
been  aligned  with  similar  recent  legal  instruments  and  the  general  data  protection  legal 
framework. 

The agreement also includes provisions on the application of the amended regulation by the 
end of 2023 and on reinforced monitoring and reporting in the development phase.  

The Commission supported the agreement reached at the trilogue negotiations. The upgraded 
Visa  Information  System,  together  with  the Entry-Exit System  and ETIAS, will provide the 
basis of a better management of the EU’s external borders and enhance interoperability of all 
European systems for borders, migration, security and justice. The agreement thus makes an 
important  contribution  to  the  goal  that  all  new  and  upgraded  information  systems  be 
operational and fully interoperable by the end of 2023. 

4. 

CONCLUSION 

The Commission accepts the position taken by the Council. 

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Council Decision 2004/512/EC.  

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