Brussels, 28/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - The European Data Protection Supervisor has approved the proposed regulation adopted by the European Commission in December 2004 on the Visa information system (VIS: see EUROPE 8864) in its entirety, but has issued a few warnings. In his opinion, which was published in Official Journal C181 of 23 July, Peter Hustinx acknowledges that the development of a common visa policy will require an efficient exchange of relevant data and that on this subject, the VIS is "one mechanism which is capable of guaranteeing the fluidity of information exchanges". The European supervisor insists, however, that this new instrument should be limited to its objective, which is "the implementation of a common policy for visas". More specifically, he stresses "that allowing repressive services systematic access to this system would not be in line with this objective". In the same way, although the implementation of the VIS may have positive repercussions for other legitimate public interests, all of its elements must remain necessary in order to achieve the objectives pursued. Furthermore, the European supervisor recognises the advantages stemming from the use of biometric data in the VIS, but suggests that this should be accompanied by "strict guarantees", given the major incidences that it could lead to. He also calls for a clear definition of the role of the European Commission, and voices his hopes that measures intended to ensure data security will be added to by a systematic audit mechanism for these measures.