On Wednesday 22 November, the member states in Brussels prepared the third trialogue on the European Travel and Information Authorisation System (ETIAS).
During this trialogue on 29 November, negotiators are hoping for a swift agreement, if possible before the end of the year, on this dossier intended to help European countries improve controls of third country travellers’ profiles with visa waivers travelling to the EU.
These people will have to pay €5 according to the Council (see EUROPE 11805) and €10 according to Parliament (see EUROPE 11887). In an online form, they will also have to indicate a range of information about their identity, travel document, residency, address, studies and current profession, family status, Union citizenship or third country citizenship with the right of free movement.
According to a Council preparatory document of which EUROPE has obtained a copy, Parliament mentioned a number of difficulties during the two most recent meetings, particularly with regard to collected data. Rapporteur Kinga Gal (EPP, Hungary) raised seven questions regarding areas where the respective positions diverged. Data collection is posing a particular problem at Parliament in certain regards, such as in the case involving the collection of data about education, professional status, the first address of where one intends to stay, the objective of the visit and even health. Gal believes this data has limited added value because it is exclusively based on declarations and is unverifiable
Another point of divergence involves access to data for the immigration authorities.
Ethics Committee. During the course of the trialogues and technical meetings, Parliament also explained that setting up an ethics committee was a key concept that should be part of the final compromise on this dossier. The Commission indicated that such a body could be a useful tool for bringing together all the different assessments made by the different parties within the framework of the ETIAS (those responsible for data protection at a level of the member states, EDPS, FRA, Frontex). The document explains that the ethics committee would help bodies to work together more efficiently but additional work would need to be carried out.
There are also differences in the respective positions on airport transit. The rapporteur indicated during the second trialogue that the obligation on all third country nationals with visa waivers to obtain authorisation to travel during airport transiting, would be disproportionate.
The Commission subsequently suggested that a possible solution would involve drawing up a list of third countries where their citizens require an airport transit travelling authorisation or a “positive” list of third countries whose citizens would not need travel authorisation during airport transits or they could quite simply scrap the idea of demanding travel authorisation for airport transit travellers.
Other questions will need to be settled, such as the price travellers have to pay or the length of data conservation.
Parliament's rapporteur will inform her colleagues about the progress made in the negotiations at the civil liberties committee on Monday 27 November. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)