On Monday 5 December towards the end of the day, negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached a political agreement on the systematic controls to be operated on all travellers, including European nationals, when they leave or re-enter the European Union.
The European legislator has therefore put the reform of the Schengen Border Code into practice. This code was presented in the wake of the terrorist attacks in November 2015 and adopted by European Ministers for the Interior in February (see EUROPE 11499).
Under the terms of the inter-institutional compromise, all EU and non-EU citizens entering or leaving the EU will be subject to controls by way of a database check, such as the database used for stolen or lost travel documents. These controls will certainly be obligatory but negotiators from Parliament made these rules at airports more flexible, in an effort to avoid slowing down passenger flows too much, explains Parliament in a press release.
The initial European Commission proposal included the possibility of introducing targeted terrestrial and maritime controls in the EU if systematic border controls were causing significant delays (see EUROPE 11435). The final compromise obtained now stipulates that derogations can apply to airports by granting the national authorities a transition period of up to 6 months in an effort to enable them to adapt their inspection infrastructures. This transition period in exceptional cases can be extended by 18 months. Following this period, however, controls will have to resume systematically again.
Member states that wish to have more flexible airport controls will have to demonstrate that the less stringent controls will not lead to any internal security risk to the public, international relations or public-health.
Another stumbling block between Parliament and the Council that needed to be sorted out involved the range of databases border guards will use. MEPs and ministers reached a compromise that seeks to encourage as much as possible, the use of databases that are used by the EU as a whole, such as the Schengen Information System, Interpol databases on stolen or lost travel documents and other European databases. The national authorities will also be able to check exclusively national based databases.
The Commissioner for Internal Affairs, Dimitris Avramopoulos, and the Commissioner for the Security Union, Sir Julian King, welcomed the finalisation of the international negotiations and called on Parliament and the Council to fully ratify the new rules as soon as possible and to swiftly apply them. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)