Regulation (EU) 2019/816 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 April 2019 establishing a centralised system for the identification of Member States holding conviction information on third-country nationals and stateless persons (ECRIS-TCN) to supplement the European Criminal Records Information System and amending Regulation (EU) 2018/1726

This Regulation establishes:

1. a system to identify the Member States holding information on previous convictions of third-country nationals (‘ECRIS-TCN’);

2. the conditions under which ECRIS-TCN shall be used by the central authorities in order to obtain information on such previous convictions through the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) established by Decision 2009/316/JHA, as well as the conditions under which Eurojust, Europol and the EPPO shall use ECRIS-TCN;

3. the conditions under which ECRIS-TCN contributes to facilitating and assisting in the correct identification of persons registered in ECRIS-TCN under the conditions and for the purposes of Article 20 of Regulation (EU) 2019/818 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽¹⁾, by storing identity data, travel document data and biometric data in the CIR;

4. the conditions under which data in ECRIS-TCN may be used by the VIS designated authorities as referred to in Article 9d and Article 22b(13) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽²⁾ for the purpose of assessing whether an applicant for a visa, a long-stay visa or a residence permit could pose a threat to public policy or internal security as referred to in point (i) of Article 2(1) and point (a) of Article 2(2) of that Regulation;

5. the conditions under which data in ECRIS-TCN may be used by the ETIAS Central Unit, established within the European Border and Coast Guard Agency in accordance with Article 7 of Regulation (EU) 2018/1240 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽³⁾, for the purpose of supporting the ETIAS objective of contributing to a high level of security by providing for a thorough security risk assessment of applicants, prior to their arrival at external border crossing points, in order to determine whether there are factual indications or reasonable grounds based on factual indications to conclude that the presence of the person on the territory of the Member States poses a security risk;

6. the conditions under which data in ECRIS-TCN may be used by the screening authorities as defined in Article 2, point (10), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1356 of the European Parliament and of the Council⁽⁴⁾ for the purpose of performing a security check in order to assess whether a third-country national might pose a threat to internal security as referred to in Article 15 of that Regulation (EU).

This Regulation applies to the processing of identity information of third-country nationals who have been subject to convictions in the Member States, for the purpose of identifying the Member States where such convictions were handed down. With the exception of point (b)(ii) of Article 5(1), the provisions of this Regulation that apply to third-country nationals also apply to citizens of the Union who also hold a nationality of a third country and who have been subject to convictions in the Member States.

This Regulation:

1. supports the VIS objective of 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;

2. supports the ETIAS objective of contributing to a high level of security, in accordance with Regulation (EU) 2018/1240;

3. facilitates and assists in the correct identification of persons in accordance with this Regulation and with Regulation (EU) 2019/818;

4. enables access to ECRIS-TCN for the purpose of supporting the performance of a security check established by Regulation (EU) 2024/1356.

For the purposes of this Regulation, the following definitions apply:

1. ‘conviction’ means any final decision of a criminal court against a natural person in respect of a criminal offence, to the extent that the decision is entered in the criminal records of the convicting Member State;

2. ‘criminal proceedings’ means the pre-trial stage, the trial stage and the execution of the conviction;

3. ‘criminal record’ means the national register or registers recording convictions in accordance with national law;

4. ‘convicting Member State’ means the Member State in which a conviction is handed down;

5. ‘central authority’ means an authority designated in accordance with Article 3(1) of Framework Decision 2009/315/JHA;

6. ‘competent authorities’ means the central authorities, Eurojust, Europol, the EPPO, the VIS designated authorities as referred to in Article 9d and Article 22b(13) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008, the ETIAS Central Unit and the screening authorities as defined in Article 2, point (10), of Regulation (EU) 2024/1356, which are competent to access or query ECRIS-TCN in accordance with this Regulation;

7. ‘third-country national’ means a person who is not a citizen of the Union within the meaning of Article 20(1) TFEU, or who is a stateless person or a person whose nationality is unknown;

8. ‘interface software’ means the software hosted by the competent authorities allowing them to access the central system through the communication infrastructure referred to in point (d) of Article 4(1);

9. ‘identity information’ means alphanumeric data, fingerprint data and facial images that are used to establish a connection between these data and a natural person;

10. ‘alphanumeric data’ means data represented by letters, digits, special characters, spaces and punctuation marks;

11. ‘fingerprint data’ means the data relating to plain and rolled impressions of the fingerprints of each of a person's fingers;

12. ‘facial image’ means a digital image of a person's face;

13. ‘hit’ means a match or matches established by comparison between identity information recorded in the central system and the identity information used for a search;

14. ‘national central access point’ means the national connection point to the communication infrastructure referred to in point (d) of Article 4(1);

15. ‘ECRIS reference implementation’ means the software developed by the Commission and made available to the Member States for the exchange of criminal records information through ECRIS;

16. ‘national supervisory authority’ means an independent public authority which is established by a Member State pursuant to applicable Union data protection rules;

17. ‘supervisory authorities’ means the European Data Protection Supervisor and the national supervisory authorities;

18. ‘CIR’ means the common identity repository established by Article 17(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/818;

19. ‘ECRIS-TCN data’ means all data stored in the central system and in the CIR in accordance with Article 5;

20. ‘ESP’ means the European search portal established by Article 6(1) of Regulation (EU) 2019/818.