Brussels, 11/10/2010 (Agence Europe) - On Monday 11 October, the civil liberties committee of the European Parliament supported the creation of an agency for the long-term operational management of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II), the Visa Information System (VIS), Eurodac and other largescale IT systems in the field of freedom, security and justice. The report drafted by Carlos Coelho (EPP, Portugal) supporting the objective of the proposal was approved by 30 votes for, two against and no abstentions. Many amendments were voted. Concerning the seat of the agency, two candidates came forward to host the seat: Estonia and France. An article by the AFP citing the Estonian interior minister, Marko Pomerants, indicated last week that an agreement had been reached between France and Estonia on the choice of Tallinn for hosting the future agency. “No agreement has yet been reached”, a French diplomat told EUROPE, underlining the fact that “one cannot take the decision in the place of the Parliament or Council, which are the only ones that can decide”. The Commission presented two legislative initiatives in June 2009 aimed at creating one such agency (EUROPE 9928). With the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty, a new proposal was presented in March 2010, taking up the main provisions of the previous project which mainly aims at the creation, from 2012, of a specialised agency which will have the essential mission of ensuring the operational management of SIS II, VIS and Eurodac, so that these systems operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The cost of setting up the agency is estimated at €113 million for the period 2010-2013. (B.C./transl.jl)