Europe’s VIS given green light by Parliament

The European Parliament has backed proposals to set up the European Visa Information System (VIS), which is destined to become the world’s largest biometric database and should prevent the phenomenon known as ‘visa shopping’.

The project, which has been on the drawing block for some years, had been waiting for the legal go ahead, having already signed up the key players to take the project forward.

The agreement of the text was opposed by some, who claimed that the system is a threat to citizen privacy. Meanwhile, the Conservatives called for Britain to opt out of the system.

More than a hundred countries’ citizens are required to have a visa issued by a Member State to enter the Schengen area. The Visa Information System (VIS) is designed to improve the implementation of a ’common visa policy’ in Europe.

It aims:

• to prevent an applicant who is refused a visa by one Schengen country applying to others (so called visa shopping);
• to facilitate the fight against fraud and checks at external borders;
• to assist in the identification of those not meeting the conditions for entry, stay or residence in Schengen Member States;
• to ease the application of Dublin II regulation on asylum;
• and to help prevent threats to the internal security of Member States.

The regulation states that each visa application file will be stored in the VIS for a maximum of 5 years.