This Regulation, together with Regulation (EU) 2019/817 of the European Parliament and of the Council(1), establishes a framework to ensure interoperability between the Entry/Exit System (EES), the Visa Information System (VIS), the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), Eurodac, the Schengen Information System (SIS), and the European Criminal Records Information System for third-country nationals (ECRIS-TCN).
Regulation (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration and amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1726, (EU) 2018/1862 and (EU) 2019/816
Regulation (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 May 2019 on establishing a framework for interoperability between EU information systems in the field of police and judicial cooperation, asylum and migration and amending Regulations (EU) 2018/1726, (EU) 2018/1862 and (EU) 2019/816
CHAPTER I General provisions
Article 1 Subject matter
1.
2.
The framework shall include the following interoperability components:
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a European search portal (ESP);
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a shared biometric matching service (shared BMS);
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a common identity repository (CIR);
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a multiple-identity detector (MID).
3.
This Regulation also lays down provisions on data quality requirements, on a universal message format (UMF), on a central repository for reporting and statistics (CRRS) and on the responsibilities of the Member States and of the European Agency for the operational management of large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and justice (eu-LISA), with respect to the design, development and operation of the interoperability components.
4.
This Regulation also adapts the procedures and conditions for the designated authorities and for the European Union Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) to access the EES, VIS, ETIAS and Eurodac for the purposes of the prevention, detection or investigation of terrorist offences or of other serious criminal offences.
5.
This Regulation also lays down a framework for verifying the identity of persons and for identifying persons.
Article 2 Objectives
1.
By ensuring interoperability, this Regulation has the following objectives:
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to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of border checks at external borders;
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to contribute to the prevention and the combating of illegal immigration;
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to contribute to a high level of security within the area of freedom, security and justice of the Union including the maintenance of public security and public policy and safeguarding security in the territories of the Member States;
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to improve the implementation of the common visa policy;
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to assist in the examination of applications for international protection;
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to contribute to the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences;
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to facilitate the identification of unknown persons who are unable to identify themselves or unidentified human remains in case of a natural disaster, accident or terrorist attack.
2.
The objectives referred to in paragraph 1 shall be achieved by:
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ensuring the correct identification of persons;
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contributing to combating identity fraud;
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improving data quality and harmonising the quality requirements for the data stored in the EU information systems while respecting the data processing requirements of the legal instruments governing the individual systems, data protection standards and principles;
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facilitating and supporting technical and operational implementation by Member States of EU information systems;
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strengthening, simplifying and making more uniform the data security and data protection conditions that govern the respective EU information systems, without affecting the special protection and safeguards afforded to certain categories of data;
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streamlining the conditions for designated authorities' access to the EES, VIS, ETIAS and Eurodac, while ensuring necessary and proportionate conditions for that access;
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supporting the purposes of the EES, VIS, ETIAS, Eurodac, SIS and ECRIS-TCN.
Article 3 Scope
1.
This Regulation applies to Eurodac, SIS and ECRIS-TCN.
2.
This Regulation also applies to Europol data to the extent of enabling them to be queried simultaneously with the EU information systems referred to in paragraph 1.
3.
This Regulation applies to persons in respect of whom personal data may be processed in the EU information systems referred to in paragraph 1 and in the Europol data referred to in paragraph 2.
Article 4 Definitions
For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:
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‘external borders’ means external borders as defined in point (2) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2016/399 of the European Parliament and of the Council(2);
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‘border checks’ means border checks as defined in point (11) of Article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2016/399;
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‘border authority’ means the border guard assigned in accordance with national law to carry out border checks;
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‘supervisory authorities’ means the supervisory authority referred to in Article 51(1) of Regulation (EU) 2016/679 and the supervisory authority referred to in Article 41(1) of Directive (EU) 2016/680;
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‘verification’ means the process of comparing sets of data to establish the validity of a claimed identity (one-to-one check);
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‘identification’ means the process of determining a person's identity through a database search against multiple sets of data (one-to-many check);
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‘alphanumeric data’ means data represented by letters, digits, special characters, spaces and punctuation marks;
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‘identity data’ means the data referred to in Article 27(3)(a) and (b);
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‘fingerprint data’ means fingerprint images and images of fingerprint latents, which due to their unique character and the reference points contained therein enable accurate and conclusive comparisons on a person's identity;
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‘facial image’ means digital images of the face;
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‘biometric data’ means fingerprint data or facial images or both;
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‘biometric template’ means a mathematical representation obtained by feature extraction from biometric data limited to the characteristics necessary to perform identifications and verifications;
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‘travel document’ means a passport or other equivalent document entitling the holder to cross the external borders and to which a visa can be affixed;
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‘travel document data’ means the type, number and country of issuance of the travel document, the date of expiry of the validity of the travel document and the three-letter code of the country issuing the travel document;
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‘EU information systems’ means the EES, VIS, ETIAS, Eurodac, SIS and ECRIS-TCN;
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‘Europol data’ means personal data processed by Europol for the purpose referred to in Article 18(2)(a), (b) and (c) of Regulation (EU) 2016/794;
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‘Interpol databases’ means the Interpol Stolen and Lost Travel Document database (SLTD database) and the Interpol Travel Documents Associated with Notices database (TDAWN database);
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‘match’ means the existence of a correspondence as a result of an automated comparison between personal data recorded or being recorded in an information system or database;
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‘police authority’ means the competent authority as defined in point (7) of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2016/680;
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‘designated authorities’ means the Member State designated authorities as defined in point (3a) of Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, point (26) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226 and point (21) of Article 3(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240;
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‘terrorist offence’ means an offence under national law which corresponds or is equivalent to one of the offences referred to in Directive (EU) 2017/541 of the European Parliament and of the Council(3);
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‘serious criminal offence’ means an offence which corresponds or is equivalent to one of the offences referred to in Article 2(2) of Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA(4), if it is punishable under national law by a custodial sentence or a detention order for a maximum period of at least three years;
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‘Entry/Exit System’ or ‘EES’ means the Entry/Exit System established by Regulation (EU) 2017/2226;
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‘Visa Information System’ or ‘VIS’ means the Visa Information System established by Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council(5);
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‘European Travel Information and Authorisation System’ or ‘ETIAS’ means the European Travel Information and Authorisation System established by Regulation (EU) 2018/1240;
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‘Eurodac’ means Eurodac established by Regulation (EU) No 603/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council(6);
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‘Schengen Information System’ or ‘SIS’ means the Schengen Information System established by Regulations (EU) 2018/1860, (EU) 2018/1861 and (EU) 2018/1862;
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‘ECRIS-TCN’ means the centralised system for the identification of Member States holding conviction information on third-country nationals and stateless persons established by Regulation (EU) 2019/816.