Système d’information sur les visas

Avis sur la communication de la Commission intitulée "Un espace de liberté, de sécurité et de justice au service des citoyens", JO C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8

The EDPS has adopted an opinion on the European Commission's Communication of 10 June 2009 entitled “An area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen”. The Communication is the Commission's contribution to the discussions on the new EU programme for the next five years in the area of justice and home affairs, the so called Stockholm programme, which is due to be adopted by the European Council in December 2009.

The EDPS supports the attention that has been devoted in the Communication to the protection of fundamental rights, and in particular the protection of personal data, as one of the key issues of the future framework for EU action on the questions of citizenship, justice, security, asylum and immigration. He fully endorses the Commission's view that more emphasis should be given to data protection in the areas concerned, and calls for the European Council to follow the same approach when adopting the Stockholm multi-annual programme.

Taking the need for protection of fundamental rights as main angle of the analysis, the EDPS opinion focuses on the following issues:

• need for a comprehensive data protection scheme: the EDPS fully supports the call for a comprehensive data protection scheme covering all areas of EU competence, regardless of the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty;
• data protection principles: the EDPS welcomes the intention of the Commission to reaffirm a number of basic principles of data protection. He emphasises the importance of the purpose limitation principle as a cornerstone of data protection law. Focus should also be given to the possibilities for improving the effectiveness of the application of data protection principles, in particular through instruments than can reinforce the responsibilities of the data controllers;
• Opinion on the Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament and the Council on an Area of freedom, security and justice serving the citizen, OJ C 276, 17.11.2009, p. 8European information model: the EDPS notes the developments towards a European information model and an EU Information Management Strategy with great interest and underlines the attention that should be given in these projects to data protection elements, to be further elaborated in the Stockholm programme. The architecture for information exchange should be based on "privacy by design" and "Best Available Techniques".

Avis concernant la proposition de règlement modifiant les instructions consulaires communes adressées aux représentations diplomatiques et consulaires de carrière, en liaison avec l'introduction d'éléments d'identification biométriques et de dispositions relatives à l'organisation de la réception et du traitement des demandes de visa (COM (2006) 269 final), JO C 321, 29.12.2006, p. 38

Regarding the cooperation between consular posts and embassies of the Member States, the EDPS emphasises the need to guarantee data security, which can prove difficult in some third countries. When the processing of visa applications (including collection of biometric identifiers) is outsourced to a private company, the EDPS stresses the need for it to be located in a place under diplomatic protection.

Observations relatives à la communication de la Commission sur l'interopérabilité des base de données européennes

The first comments concerned a communication related to the interoperability of European Justice and home affairs databases. Because it covered a transversal topic, involving several legal instruments with a list of possible actions, the EDPS decided to issue his comments. The objective was to re-introduce main data protection principles in the debate and to raise their impact on the exploration of a new policy.

The comments called for interoperability not to be treated as a mere technical concept, but to see it as a legal and political one because of the increased risks for the citizens.