On Monday 27 February, MEPs at the European Parliament civil liberties committee adopted a report on the so-called smart borders system. This system seeks to store the data of travellers crossing the EU’s external borders in an “entry/exit” system that strengthens protection for private life and establishes a shorter data storage period.
This system has been promoted by number of member states, particularly Germany and France. The entry/exit system will speed up and strengthen the external border controls for nationals from third countries entering the Union. It will replace the stamping of passports with an electronic system that stocks travellers’ data in an effort to facilitate swift passage at the border, whilst making the detection of people exceeding the period of their visa validity, as well as those using false documents or bogus identities, easier. The system proposed seeks to check that the authorised period for visiting the Schengen area (90 days out of a period of 180 days) is respected, while strengthening security.
For member states, it is, above all, a way of carrying out greater surveillance of people suspected of carrying out terrorist activities. The Parliament's committee, however, did not retain the Council of the EU’s proposal to apply this system to European nationals as well, which was what France and Germany have been striving for for months. This point will therefore need to be resolved during the negotiations with the Council.
This report was adopted by 38 votes in favour, with 7 against and 1 abstention and MEPs consequently supported the Commission proposal to store a combination of four digital fingerprints and a facial image of travellers arriving in the Schengen area. Nonetheless, they were keen to explain that the data should be stored for a maximum of two years, as opposed to the five years called for in the Commission proposal. MEPs also wanted to provide assurances that the text complies with the provisions in the general regulation on data protection by, for example, allowing people concerned to have access to their personal data.
MEPs also emphasised that the data processing objectives in the new system should also be clarified. Migration management is expected to be the main objective, as well as maintaining public order. MEPs stressed that the two objectives should be tackled separately because the conditions for using and storing data were different.
Parliament will now be able to negotiate with the Council. The latter, however, has still not adopted its position on these smart borders. The GUE/NGL and the Greens/EFA criticised this report. The former were opposed to it because they consider it dangerous and likely to have a deleterious effect on migrants. The Greens/EFA also believe that it is excessive and costly. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)