Representatives from the Council and European Parliament are expected to meet up on the afternoon of Wednesday 10 May for inter-institutional negotiations on the entry/exit system. This system seeks to improve entry and exit controls, as well as the length of stay in the Schengen area for third country nationals.
After a number of technical meetings, there will now be a second political trialogue. A variety of questions have been put on the table: the nature of the competent authorities that can access the new database and questions relating to the period of time for retaining this data. Parliament's rapporteur, Agustin Diaz de Mera (EPP, Spain), is due to inform the Parliament's civil liberties committee (LIBE) on the progress of these trialogues, on Thursday morning.
The so-called smart borders system seeks to store data from travellers crossing the EU’s external borders as part of an “entry/exit system”. This system has been promoted by the member states, particularly Germany and France and aims to speed up and strengthen external border controls for third country nationals travelling to the Union. It will replace the passport stamp with an electronic system storing travellers’ data.
France called for the system to be applied to Europeans as well but this extension to all European nationals did not obtain a majority of the Council. Some delegations believe that it would make the system too complicated. LIBE committee MEPs adopted their position on 27 February (see EUROPE 11735), while COREPER approved the Council position on 3 March (see EUROPE 11738). (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)