Member States' ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) on Wednesday 19 December endorsed the inter-institutional agreement reached between European Parliament and EU Council representatives last week (see EUROPE 12157) on the proposal establishing the centralised information system ‘ECRIS-TCN’ which will enable a Member State to quickly check whether it has information on the convictions of a third-country national.
After months of deadlock, the preliminary solution found between the co-legislators finally includes in the system EU nationals who also hold the nationality of a third country (dual nationals), as requested by the Commission and the Council.
In exchange, a concession on fingerprints was made to Parliament. For national duplicates, the system will only include fingerprints when they have been collected in accordance with national legislation in the course of criminal proceedings.
The Commission welcomed the agreement, but also expressed its disappointment with these limitations. "Since fingerprints are currently the most reliable form of identification of individuals, the Commission regrets these limitations on the inclusion of fingerprints, which in its view will make the ECRIS-TCN system less effective”, it writes in a statement.
On the Parliament side, confirmation of the agreement is likely to be more complicated. The S&D, ALDE, Greens/EFA and GUE/NGL groups continue to oppose the inclusion of dual nationals and may decide to reject the inter-institutional agreement in a vote in the Parliament Civil Liberties Committee in January. (Original version in French by Marion Fontana)