The EU has approved a new system of registration on the borders of the Schengen area

Changes are needed to strengthen security and speed.

The European Parliament approved the introduction of a new system of registration of entry and exit at the external borders of the Schengen area. For a decision voted by 477 MEPs, 139 were against and 50 abstained.

“The rules regarding people entering the Schengen area urgently need upgrading because of security issues, as well as increasing the number of travelers in recent years”, – said in the European Parliament.

The new system will allow to have information about people from outside the EU, their entry, exit and refusal of entry, recording while traveling to and from the EU. The system will apply irrespective of whether they need a visa.

This will allow both to strengthen and to speed up checks at the borders, because the new electronic system will replace the stamping of passports.
The system will keep data on travelers, to facilitate quick border crossing, as well as to facilitate the identification of cases of use of false documents or tracking people who stay in the Schengen zone for longer than the stipulated 90 days in any 180-day period.

Spanish MEP Agustin Diaz de Mera Garcia Consuegra, who was the Rapporteur on this issue, said that the new system can also help to identify terrorists.

“One of the methods is that the authorities and security services have access to this data and in the case of cross-validation with other information, can be quickly issued a warning. It will be easier to prevent what happened, for example, at the Berlin Christmas market, where a terrorist carried out the attack, and then we found out that he used 15 different identity documents”, – he said.

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