12 January 2018
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On Thursday 11 January the Civil Liberties Committee (LIBE) discussed its negotiating position on: On a Regulation establishing a centralised system for the identification of Member States holding conviction information on third country nationals and stateless persons (TCN) to supplement and support the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS-TCN system) (pdf).
The Committee was divided on two major issues. The first was over the status of EU/third countries nationals. The Council and the Commission and the parliament rapporteur want to include those with dual status but a number of the groups on the committee are opposed. They cited the Meijers Committee report (pdf) which said that the inclusion of those with dual status would be contrary to EU law.
The second issue concerns the inclusion of facial images. MEPs argued that facial images of EU ctizens were not included on the ECRIS system and to do so for others would be discriminatory.
The Commission has proposed that:
"The data record may also contain facial images of the convicted third country national."
The EP rapporteur wants:
"The data record shall also contain facial images of the convicted third country national wherever the national law of a Member State where a conviction is handed down allows for the collection and storage of facial images of a convicted person." [emphasis in original]
At the present there seems to be little chance of any "compromise" in the Committee.
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