Regulation (EU) 2021/1133 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 7 July 2021 amending Regulations (EU) No 603/2013, (EU) 2016/794, (EU) 2018/1862, (EU) 2019/816 and (EU) 2019/818 as regards the establishment of the conditions for accessing other EU information systems for the purposes of the Visa Information System

The competent visa authorities shall have access to Eurodac to consult data in a read-only format for the purpose of manually verifying hits triggered by the automated queries carried out by VIS pursuant to Article 9a of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council and examining and deciding on visa applications in accordance with Article 21 of Regulation (EC) No 810/2009 of the European Parliament and of the Council .

From the date of the start of operations of VIS pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1134 of the European Parliament and of the Council Eurodac shall be connected to the European search portal established by Article 6 of Regulation (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council to enable the automated processing pursuant to Article 9a of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.

When consulting Eurodac as referred to in Article 22a of this Regulation, a record or log of each data processing operation carried out within Eurodac and VIS shall be kept in accordance with Article 28 of this Regulation and Article 34 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.’.

‘1b Europol shall take all appropriate measures to enable the VIS designated authorities, for the purposes of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, to have indirect access on the basis of a hit/no hit system to data provided for the purposes of point (a) of Article 18(2) of this Regulation, without prejudice to any restrictions indicated by the Member State, Union body, third country or international organisation providing the information in question, in accordance with Article 19(2) of this Regulation. In the case of a hit, Europol shall initiate the procedure by which the information that generated the hit may be shared, in accordance with the decision of the provider of the information to Europol. Such information may be shared only to the extent that the data generating the hit are necessary for the performance of the VIS designated authorities’ tasks related to VIS. Paragraphs 2 to 7 of this Article shall apply accordingly.’.

Logs of each data processing operation carried out within SIS and VIS pursuant to Article 50a of this Regulation shall be kept in accordance with Article 18 of this Regulation and Article 34 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council .

From the date of the start of operations of VIS pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1134 of the European Parliament and of the Council the SIS Central System shall be connected to the ESP to enable the automated processing pursuant to in Articles 9a and 22b of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.

‘1a The CIR shall contain the data referred to in point (b) of paragraph 1 and the following data of point (a) of paragraph 1: surname (family name), first names (given names), date of birth, place of birth (town and country), nationality or nationalities, gender, previous names, if applicable, where available pseudonyms or aliases, where available, the type and number of the person’s travel documents, as well as the name of the issuing authority. The CIR may contain the data referred to in paragraph 3 as well as, in the cases referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1, the code of the convicting Member State. The remaining ECRIS-TCN data shall be stored in the central system.’;

‘7 Where hits are identified following the automated processing referred to in Article 27a of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, the flags and the code of the convicting Member State referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1 of this Article shall be accessible and searchable only by the VIS Central System for the purposes of the verifications pursuant to Article 7a of this Regulation in conjunction with point (e) of Article 9a(4) or point (e) of Article 22b(3) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008. Without prejudice to the first subparagraph of this paragraph, the flags and the code of the convicting Member State referred to in point (c) of paragraph 1 shall not be visible to any authority other than the central authority of the convicting Member State having created the flagged record.’;

‘7 In the event of a hit, the central system or the CIR shall automatically provide the competent authority with information on the Member States holding criminal record information on the third-country national, along with the associated reference numbers referred to in Article 5(1) and any corresponding identity information. Such identity information shall be used only for the purpose of verifying the identity of the third-country national concerned. The result of a search in the central system shall be used only for the purpose of: (a) making a request pursuant to Article 6 of Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA; (b) making a request as referred to in Article 17(3) of this Regulation; or (c) assessing whether the applicant for a visa, a long-stay visa or a residence permit could pose a threat to public policy or internal security, in accordance with Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.’;

1 From the date of the start of operations of VIS pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1134 of the European Parliament and of the Council ECRIS-TCN shall be connected to the ESP to enable the automated processing pursuant to Articles 9a and 22b of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 to query ECRIS-TCN and compare the relevant data in the VIS with the relevant ECRIS-TCN data in the CIR flagged pursuant to point (c) of Article 5(1) of this Regulation.

2 For the purpose of performing the tasks pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, the VIS designated authorities as referred to in Article 9d and Article 22b(13) of that Regulation shall have the right to access only those ECRIS-TCN data in the CIR to which a flag has been added pursuant to point (c) of Article 5(1) of this Regulation.

For the consultations referred to in Article 7a of this Regulation, a log of each ECRIS-TCN data processing operation carried out within the CIR and VIS shall be kept in accordance with Article 34 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008.’.

‘1a For the purposes of Articles 9a and 22b of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, the CIR shall also store, logically separated from the data referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article, the data referred to in point (c) of Article 5(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/816. The data referred to in point (c) of Article 5(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/816 shall be accessible only in the manner referred to in Article 5(7) of that Regulation.’;

‘1a Without prejudice to paragraph 1 of this Article, the ESP shall start operations, for the purposes of the automated processing pursuant to Articles 9a and 22b of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 only, from the date of the start of operations of VIS pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1134 of the European Parliament and of the Council .

This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union. This Regulation shall apply from the date of the start of operation of VIS pursuant to Article 11 of Regulation (EU) 2021/1134.