Brussels, 28/02/2013 (Agence Europe) - Facilitating the arrival of travellers in the Schengen area, while better controlling illegal stays thanks to up to date technology - this is what European Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström proposed on Thursday in a Smart Borders package, which answered a Council request of June 2011. The European Commission put two regulations on the table - the first creating a European programme for registering travellers (RTP) and the second a system for entering/leaving the EU (13 member states already possess such a system but with an efficiency that the Commission considered limited). The RTP will enable travellers to be provided with a computerised card which will allow them to pass through an electronic barrier in EU airports. Passing through the barrier will take “a few seconds”, Malmström explained. As a rule, around 5 million travellers should be able to benefit from this new system, which will facilitate their lives every time they travel in the EU.
The entry and exit system will be able to tell if the travellers have really left the territory once the length of their stay has expired. This system should indeed record the date, the traveller's place of entry and place of exit. It will electronically calculate the length of the authorised short stay, the Commission explains, and it will alert national authorities when the expiry date of this duration, the entry and exit file does not include data on the exit.
Travellers' personal data will be kept for six months, then erased, except in cases of problematically overstaying the length of stay, and access to the data will be reserved for people in charge of borders, Malmström assures. Nevertheless, the proposals provide for revision of the system within two years of its entry into force, and the field of application for the rules could then be extended, a source pointed out. The Commission will indeed examine the opportunity of opening this access to police forces. Yet for the moment, the Commission is of the opinion that police access would not be proportionate, this source added.
The two proposals will involve considerable financial efforts for the member states, Malmström said. In the European budget, this will represent a little over €1 billion for the 2015-2020 period (around €500 million for the entry/exit system and €600 million for the RTP). The investment will nevertheless be compensated by the gains in border management, with controls being carried out by a reduced number of border guards, Malmström underlined. By 2030 the number of arrivals from air passengers is expected to double from 400 million to over 720 million.
However, the proposals raise other issues - especially from the European Parliament and the Greens/EFA Group. In the view of Hélène Flautre MEP, these proposals are anything but smart. They create a super-system of surveillance at Europe's borders which is useless, costly and damaging to people's rights. They also go well beyond the procedures currently in place in member states. Flautre says that we already have a visa information system (VIS) and that within only just a year of its implementation we should first evaluate its effectiveness and its interest. Another cause for concern is the fact that police might be able to consult the system at a later date. The Parliament's civil liberties committee (the Parliament has co-decision on this) has promised to assess these proposals closely - especially its arrangements on data protection and the respect of non-discrimination between travellers. (SP/transl.fl)