Ireland could get access to Schengen database
Because Ireland and Britain are not part of the Schengen travel free area within the EU, they cannot access the information that is used to vet applicants or track people staying illegally.
Both countries have challenged this in the European Court of Justice but the initial advocate general’s legal opinion has gone against them and the judgment due out shortly is expected to agree with this.
In the meantime, the other EU countries together with Norway and Switzerland, that are also members of Schengen, are forging ahead with a new generation of the Visa Information System.
It will be the world’s largest biometric database with 70 million sets of fingerprints, the name, address and occupation of the applicant, date and place of their application and any decision taken by the country responsible to issue, refuse, revoke or extend the visa.
Citizens of more than 130 countries around the world need a visa to enter the EU Schengen area and a separate visa to enter Britain or Ireland.
The common EU Schengen database allows member states to exchange information on visa applicants and see if and why a person has already been refused a visa by another country or has outstayed their visa period.
A large number of illegal immigrants in the EU are people who entered on a valid visa but disappeared into some of the Schengen countries when their visa expired.
European Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini explained that frequently, when people are detected, they can claim to have lost their documents and there has been no way of tracing who they are or where or when they entered.
But countries with access to the Visa Information System are able to search by fingerprints and discover who issued the original visa and arrange for them to be sent home.
Britain has been gradually introducing fingerprinting for visa applicants and already has more than a million people on its database.
Work to install a biometric fingerprinting system in Ireland is expected to be complete later this year. Mr Lenihan discussed the issue with the British Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, when they were attending the EU justice ministers’ meeting in Slovenia at the weekend.
He said Ireland would be more than willing to give the Schengen countries access to the Irish visa database in exchange for access to theirs. But the problem was a legal one and they were working on that.
IRISH and other EU citizens will be able to be tried in their absence for a list of more than 30 crimes, and fined or sentenced under EU proposals.
However, they will have to be informed in good time, in a language they understand and given an opportunity to attend or appoint a defence lawyer.
The new rules will apply to people who flee Europe to avoid paying the penalty for their crime. If they return to the EU, they will still have to serve their time in jail or pay whatever fine was handed down by the court in their absence.
However, the person will have to be offered a retrial. It will apply to a wide range of serious crimes.
Officials insisted the proposal, for which there was widespread support, will not affect many people as the vast majority of those wanted for trial within the EU can be handed over under the European Arrest Warrant. Under this new development, once all the requirements have been met, if a person found guilty by a court in his absence does not hand himself over to serve a jail sentence or fails to pay a fine, the country involved will be able to issue a European Arrest Warrant.
Under the terms of the warrant, which has been in place for a few years, the Gardaí must extradite the person involved.
Justice Minister Brian Lenihan welcomed the new legislation. “Ireland fully supports this. It is well drafted and respects the rights of the individual,” he said, after a meeting of EU justice ministers.
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