The European Parliament negotiator on the entry/exit system for travellers visiting the Schengen area for less than three months believes that an agreement with the Council of the EU is possible before the summer.
Mr Agustin Diaz de Mera (EPP, Spain) says that he is “optimistic” about the chances of reaching an inter-institutional deal in compliance with the calendar on this proposal put forward in April 2016. An initial trialogue took place on 23 March and a second on 10 May (see EUROPE 11785). So far there have been seven technical meetings and an eighth is expected to take place on Friday 12 May
On Wednesday 10 May, negotiators discussed several aspects of the dossier, including the scope of territorial application, the question of the competent authorities being able to access data from the system and how long data should be retained for.
On the question of the scope of application, the rapporteur explained that at this stage, Romania and Bulgaria are not involved because they are not part of the Schengen area. It will also be necessary to harmonise the way in which the length of stay in the Schengen area is calculated in the member states. The rapporteur explained that with regard to the question of the authorities accessing this system, “We want to prevent the authorities in charge of asylum having access to the system”. According to the latter, only the immigration service authorities will be able to have this access.
The MEP also explained that the “asylum” package will already include provisions on access to the entry/exit system. He argues that they will therefore need to take this fact into account as part of the regulation on the entry/exit system regulation.
Finally, Mr Diaz de Mera explained that differences still persisted with a Council on the question of how long data should be retained for.
The next political trialogue will take place on 31 May. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)