The aim of the projects is to reduce irregular migration of over-stayers and fight organised crime, as well as speeding up border checks by replacing the manual stamping of passports. The entry/exit system (EES) is part of the Smart Borders initiative, and consists of a central database storing the name, travel document, fingerprints, facial image, date and place of entry, exit and entry refusal of every third-country national, even visa-exempt travellers, coming to and from the EU Schengen area. Data stored in the EES can be consulted to prevent, detect or investigate terrorist offences or other serious criminal offences.
The data will be retained for at least three years, or five years for over-stayers, and will be accessible to border, visa and national enforcement authorities, as well as Europol, but not national asylum authorities. The draft law had already been informally agreed with member states, and the European Commission is now pushing for it to be up and running “by 2020 at the latest”.
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