At the plenary session in Strasbourg, the European Parliament supported the establishment of an electronic entry and exit system (EES) for citizens of "third countries", which should speed up checks at the external borders of the Schengen area.
As stated, the new common electronic system, which will become operational in 2020, will register information about travelers from third countries, including name and surname, fingerprints, facial photo, time, date and place of entry and exit, as well as refusals to enter the Schengen area. space, reports Hina.
As it was announced last week, in the future, citizens of the Western Balkan countries will have to seek approval from the competent services of the European Union in order to travel to the "Schengen area".
The system will apply both to travelers who need a visa to enter Schengen, as well as to those who do not need visas, and should make it possible to easily establish the overstay of the permitted short-term stay, up to 90 days in a six-month period.
The data should be kept for a period of three years, and for those who exceed the permitted stay for five years, and as stated, they will be able to be used for the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist attacks and other criminal acts, and will be available to border and visa authorities. authorities in member countries.
EES will be able to be used by countries that fully apply Schengen rules or member countries that have undergone Schengen evaluation and have passive access to the Visa Information System (VIS).
This means that Bulgaria and Romania will be able to participate in the EES, and Croatia will be able to do so after successfully passing the evaluation.
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