On Monday 4 February, the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Committee adopted, by 30 votes to 3, with 3 abstentions, the report by Carlos Coelho (EPP, Portugal) that seeks to improve the Visa Information System (VIS), a system that will be interoperable with other European databases such as the ETIAS system or the Schengen Information System.
The new regulation was proposed by the Commission in May (see EUROPE 12021) and the Member States adopted their mandates in December (see EUROPE 12163). The aim will be to strengthen the security of the VIS.
MEPs have therefore decided that security checks will be mandatory in all databases in order to detect applicants using multiple identities and to identify anyone presenting a security risk or a risk of irregular migration; they propose that long-stay visas, including 'golden visas', and residence permits should be included in the new VIS.
The age required for obtaining fingerprints and facial images from minors will be reduced from 12 to 6, to help identify and find missing children, for example.
MEPs also called for more structured access to VIS data for Europol and law enforcement agencies to help in the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences or other serious crimes.
The EU Council has also supported some of these requests, such as the inclusion of long-stay visas. Parliament’s plenary will vote on this report in March. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)