On Tuesday 11 December, the European Parliament and the Council of the EU reached an interinstitutional agreement on the proposal for a centralised information system on convictions of third-country nationals (ECRIS-TCN).
After months of deadlock, it was finally the Council that won the case (see EUROPE 12154), since the system will indeed include EU nationals who also hold the nationality of a third country (dual nationals).
The compromise reached mainly includes option D and "easy access", put on the table by the Council (see EUROPE 12062). In exchange for the inclusion of dual nationals, a concession on fingerprints was made to the European Parliament. The system will only indicate whether they are "available" and an additional step would be necessary since it would have to be requested from the Member State that collected them.
A revision clause, as proposed by European Parliament rapporteur Daniel Dalton (ECR, UK), has also been added to review in the future the need for and proportionality of including dual nationals in the system (see EUROPE 12142).
However, the case is not fully closed. At the Parliament, Mr Dalton decided to go it alone with the support of the EPP Group only. The S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups continue to oppose the inclusion of dual nationals, a parliamentary source said on Tuesday. They could thus reject the Interinstitutional Agreement in a vote in the Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee in January. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)