08/02/2018 (Agence Europe) – On Thursday 8 February, the European Parliament approved by a large majority (568 votes for, 45 against, with 12 abstentions), the Council of the EU's negotiating mandate on the proposal to create a centralised 'ECRIS-TCN' that will help to rapidly check whether a member state has information on the convictions of a third country national (see EUROPE 11919). The plenary vote was requested by the ENF and EFDD groups. Parliament's civil liberties committee (LIBE) adopted its position at the end of January (see EUROPE 11947). As opposed to the position of the Council in December (see EUROPE 11922), MEPs decided to exclude those with duel third country and EU member state nationalities. The rapporteur, Daniel Dalton (ECR, United Kingdom) said they needed to “avoid creating two classes of European citizens". (MF)