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EU Smart Border entry/exit system will be fully functional by 2020

In 2015, over 50 million non-EU nationals visited the European Union, accounting for more than 200 million border crossings. The growth in cross-border travel is expected to continue, as the number of non- EU travellers to the EU is estimated to rise to 76 million by 2025.

At the same time, the unprecedented migratory flow into the EU reached a new high in 2015, with 1.8 million irregular border crossings reported by Frontex. 2016 saw a decrease, but more than half a million irregular border crossings were still detected, which is higher than any annual figure for arrivals between 2010 (104 060) and 2014 (282 933).

Border management capacities were exhausted at the main points of irregular entry along the external border of the EU, which enabled the mixed flows of asylum-seekers and migrants to travel onwards within the Schengen area. These developments put strong pressure on the Schengen area of free movement, which is perceived as one of the most recognisable achievements of the EU, and created tensions between Member States.

In anticipation of increased traveller flows and in response to security concerns regarding the control of EU external borders, on 6 April 2016, the Commission presented revised proposals for establishing an Entry/Exit System for recording the border-crossings of all non-EU nationals. These build on the Smart Borders package presented in 2013, which did not secure consensus among the co-legislators and was the subject of additional technical and operational studies completed in 2015.

The current system of manual stamping of passports would be replaced by automation of certain preparatory border control procedures. The system would be interconnected with the Visa Information System (VIS) database and used by the same authorities: border control and consular posts.

The two regulations were signed on 30 November 2017, and the Entry/Exit System is due to become fully functional by 2020 at the latest.

The EU has developed three centralised information systems that address different objectives: the Schengen Information System (SIS); the Visa Information System (VIS); and Eurodac. While VIS and Eurodac focus on third-country nationals and have law enforcement as an ancillary objective, SIS is also relevant to EU nationals and directly supports both external border control and law enforcement cooperation.

Schengen Information System (SIS)

Visa Information System (VIS)

Eurodac

SIS is a large-scale information system that enables law- enforcement authorities, such as police and border guards to enter and consult alerts on suspected criminals, people who may not be entitled to enter into or stay in the EU, on missing persons and on stolen or lost property.

VIS is used at all Schengen external border crossing points and in consulates outside the EU to exchange and process visa applications and decisions, also through means of biometric matching, based on fingerprints for identification and verification.

Eurodac is a biometric database in which Member States are required to enter the fingerprint data of irregular migrants or asylum- seekers to identify where they entered the EU, and thus determine the Member State responsible for examining their asylum application

Read more here: here

Prabhu Balakrishnan
Prabhu Balakrishnan
Founder of Citizenship by Investment Journal. Chief Editor with over 15 years experience in PR and News publishing. He Loves writing about citizenship, residency and wealth migration. CIP Journal is a Leading publication founded in 2017 bringing latest news from CBI/RBI market.

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