L_2017327EN.01002001.xml
| 9.12.2017 | EN | Official Journal of the European Union | L 327/20 |
REGULATION (EU) 2017/2226 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL
of 30 November 2017
establishing an Entry/Exit System (EES) to register entry and exit data and refusal of entry data of third-country nationals crossing the external borders of the Member States and determining the conditions for access to the EES for law enforcement purposes, and amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement and Regulations (EC) No 767/2008 and (EU) No 1077/2011
THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION,
Having regard to the Treaty of the Functioning of the European Union, and in particular, Article 77(2)(b) and (d) and Article 87(2)(a) thereof,
Having regard to the proposal from the European Commission,
After transmission of the draft legislative act to the national parliaments,
Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee (1),
After consulting the Committee of the Regions,
Acting in accordance with the ordinary legislative procedure (2),
Whereas:
| (1) | In its Communication of 13 February 2008 entitled ‘Preparing the next steps in border management in the European Union’, the Commission outlined the need, as part of the Union’s integrated border management strategy, to establish an Entry/Exit System (EES) which registers electronically the time and place of entry and exit of third-country nationals admitted for a short stay to the territory of the Member States and which calculates the duration of their authorised stay. |
| (2) | The European Council of 19 and 20 June 2008 underlined the importance of continuing to work on the development of the Union’s integrated border management strategy, including better use of modern technologies to improve the management of external borders. |
| (3) | In its Communication of 10 June 2009 entitled ‘An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizens’, the Commission advocated for the establishment of an electronic system for recording entry to and exit from the territory of the Member States at external borders to ensure a more effective management of access to that territory. |
| (4) | The European Council of 23 and 24 of June 2011 called for work on ‘smart borders’ to be pushed forward rapidly. On 25 October 2011, the Commission published a Communication entitled ‘Smart borders – options and the way ahead’. |
| (5) | In its strategic guidelines adopted in June 2014, the European Council stressed that the Schengen area, allowing people to travel without internal border controls, and the increasing numbers of people travelling to the Union require efficient management of the Union’s common external borders to ensure strong protection. It also stressed that the Union must mobilise all the tools at its disposal to support the Member States in their task and that, to this end, integrated border management of external borders should be modernised in a cost efficient way to ensure smart border management, inter alia, with an entry-exit system and supported by the new agency for large-scale IT systems (eu-LISA). |
| (6) | In its Communication of 13 May 2015 entitled ‘A European agenda on migration’, the Commission noted that a new phase would come with the ‘Smart Borders’ initiative to increase the efficiency of border crossings, facilitating crossings for the large majority of ‘bona fide’ third country travellers, whilst at the same time strengthening the fight against irregular migration by creating a record of all cross-border movements by third-country nationals, fully respecting proportionality. |
| (7) | With a view to further improving the management of the external borders and, in particular, in order to verify compliance with the provisions on the authorised period of stay on the territory of the Member States, an EES should be established, which registers electronically the time and place of entry and exit of third-country nationals admitted for a short stay to the territory of the Member States and which calculates the duration of their authorised stay. It should replace the obligation to stamp the passports of third-country nationals which is applicable to all Member States. |
| (8) | It is necessary to specify the objectives of the EES, the categories of data to be entered into the EES, the purposes for which the data are to be used, the criteria for their entry, the authorities authorised to access the data, further rules on data processing and the protection of personal data, as well as the technical architecture of the EES, rules concerning its operation and use, and interoperability with other information systems. It is also necessary to define responsibilities for the EES. |
| (9) | The EES should apply to third-country nationals admitted for a short stay to the territory of the Member States. It should also apply to third-country nationals whose entry for a short stay has been refused. |
| (10) | The EES should be operated at the external borders of the Member States which apply the Schengen acquis in full. It is desirable that Member States not yet applying the Schengen acquis in full apply it fully by the start of operations of the EES. However, in the event that the lifting of controls at internal borders cannot be achieved by the start of operations of the EES, it is necessary to specify the conditions for the operation of the EES by those Member States which do not apply the Schengen acquis in full and lay down the provisions for the operation and use of the EES at internal borders where controls have not yet been lifted. As regards the conditions for the operation of the EES, the EES should be operated at the external borders of the Member States which do not yet apply the Schengen acquis in full but for which the verification in accordance with the applicable Schengen evaluation procedure has already been successfully completed, to which passive access to the Visa Information System (VIS) established by Council Decision 2004/512/EC (3) has been granted for the purpose of operating the EES and for which the provisions of the Schengen acquis relating to the Schengen Information System (SIS), established by Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council (4), have been put into effect in accordance with the relevant Act of Accession. As regards the provisions on the operation and use of the EES by the Member States fulfilling such conditions, the EES should be operated at all internal borders of those Member States where the controls have not yet been lifted. However, specific provisions on the operation and use of the EES at such borders should apply, in order to minimise the impact of the border check procedure at such borders, while not affecting the level of security and the proper functioning of the EES and without prejudice to the other border control obligations under Regulation (EU) 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council (5). |
| (11) | The duration of the authorised stay of third-country nationals on the territory of the Member States for the purpose of this Regulation results from the applicable Schengen acquis. |
| (12) | An automated calculator should be included in the EES. The automated calculator should take into account stays on the territory of the Member States which operate the EES for the calculation of the overall limit of 90 days in any 180-day period. Any extensions of authorised stay should be taken into account for the purpose of calculation of that overall limit on the subsequent entry of the third-country national to the territory of the Member States. Stays on the territory of Member States which do not yet operate the EES should be counted separately on the basis of stamps affixed in the travel documents of third-country nationals. |
| (13) | The automated calculator should only take into account stays on the territory of Member States which do not yet apply the Schengen acquis in full but operate the EES for the purposes of verifying compliance with the overall limit of 90 days in any 180-day period and for the purposes of verifying the period of validity of a Schengen short-stay visa. The automated calculator should not calculate the duration of stay as authorised by a national short-stay visa issued by a Member State which does not yet apply the Schengen acquis in full but operates the EES. When calculating the duration of stay authorised by a Schengen short-stay visa, the automated calculator should not take into account stays on the territory of Member States which do not yet apply the Schengen acquis in full but operate the EES. |
| (14) | Precise rules should be laid down as regards the responsibility for the development and operation of the EES and the responsibility of the Member States for their connection to the EES. The European agency for the operational management of large-scale information systems in the area of freedom, security and justice, established by Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6), should be responsible for the development and operational management of a centralised EES in accordance with this Regulation. Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011 should therefore be amended accordingly. |
| (15) | The objectives of the EES should be to improve the management of external borders, to prevent irregular immigration and to facilitate the management of migration flows. The EES should, in particular and when relevant, contribute to the identification of any person who does not fulfil or no longer fulfils the conditions of duration of the authorised stay on the territory of the Member States. Additionally, the EES should contribute to the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other |
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