On Wednesday 28 July, the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) gave his Opinion on the Commission’s proposal of 2 June for a revision of the Schengen evaluation mechanism (see EUROPE 12732/7). The proposal aims to strengthen the evaluation and monitoring mechanism to verify the application of the Schengen acquis and now provides for actual surprise inspections in the Member States.
“The EDPS welcomes the increased transparency in sharing the results of Schengen evaluations”, the institution said in a statement. The institution also welcomes the proposed “synergies with other evaluation and monitoring mechanisms”, which will contribute to the enforcement of Schengen rights and obligations and to the renewed cooperation with the EDPS as well as with the European Agency for Fundamental Rights.
But the new regulation must clearly “define the scope of Schengen evaluations by laying down a non-exhaustive list of relevant policy fields, subject to evaluation”. Restricting its scope to a few areas “weakens legal certainty” and opens the door to shortcomings in the evaluation, says the EDPS.
The reformed evaluation and monitoring mechanism should also continue to include dedicated data protection evaluations, carried out by data protection experts, says the EDPS.
Link to Opinion: https://bit.ly/373d151 (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)