The EU is introducing new rules to improve the way member states exchange information on convictions of third-country nationals. The reformed European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) will now include a central database containing information on convictions of third-country nationals and stateless persons (known as ECRIS-TCN).
The Council today adopted the ECRIS package, consisting of a regulation and a directive. This marks the end of the legislative process.
The regulation lays down the rules for establishing the centralized system and specifies the data to be included and access rights. The centralized system will contain the data necessary to identify a person and will cover information on third-country nationals, including persons with the nationality of both an EU member state and a third country. Information on the conviction itself can still only be obtained from the member state of conviction.
The regulation also establishes the division of responsibilities between member states and eu-LISA, the agency charged with developing and operating the system.
Next Steps
The legislative process is now complete. The Regulation and the Directive will now be formally signed and then published in the Official Journal.
As indicated in the Regulation, the Commission will set the date when the ECRIS-TCN system will become operational once the initial preparations are completed by the member states and eu-LISA.
Cooperation with Denmark
Although Denmark is not participating in the adoption of this legislative package, the Council today adopted a joint statement in response to a statement by Denmark on its continued participation in the existing ECRIS system.
Background
The ECRIS package consists of a regulation, which establishes a centralized system for identifying the member state(s) that may have information on the conviction of a third-country national, and a directive, which amends the existing Framework Decision on ECRIS in light of this new centralized system for information on third-country nationals.
Ecris was introduced in 2012. It enables the effective exchange between member states of information on criminal convictions in the EU. Currently, most of the information exchanged is on EU citizens and the system operates on a decentralized basis, with all member states storing information on their nationals. While it is already possible to exchange data on third-country nationals through ECRIS, there is currently no common European procedure or mechanism by which this can be done effectively.
Under current rules, information on convictions of third-country nationals in the EU is not collected in the Member State of nationality, as it is for EU nationals; that information is stored only in the Member State where the conviction was handed down. A full record of a third-country national's criminal history can therefore only be obtained by sending a request for information to all member states.
