On Friday 7 April, the amendment to the Schengen Border Code bringing in systematic controls on all travellers crossing the external Schengen borders, including European nationals, who will be checked against European police files, entered into force. The reform, which was proposed at the end of 2015 following the Paris attacks, was definitively approved on 7 March (see EUROPE 11740).
Readers may recall that the new regulation requires air, land and sea border agents to check all travellers on the basis of police files, such as the Schengen Information System or the Interpol database of stolen or missing documents, in order to identify any possible movements for terrorist purposes. The checks will be compulsory at all air, land and sea borders, for both entries and exits.
The regulation provides for adaptations to take account of the problems, mostly of a technical nature, raised by certain member states: at the air borders, for instance, the member states will be authorised to carry out targeted checks for an interim period of six months following the entry into force of the new regulation. This period may then be prolonged for a maximum of 18 months in exceptional circumstances, for instance if airports need to adapt, should they lack the necessary infrastructure to allow them to carry out systematic checks.
And if these systematic checks lead to excessive waiting times at sea and land borders, the member states will be able to conduct targeted checks, as long as the risk assessment demonstrates that this will not pose a threat, notably in terms of domestic security or public order. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)