Requests and notifications sent through ECRIS (thousands)

In January 2016, the Commission adopted a proposal to upgrade ECRIS by establishing an index system enabling national authorities to determine which Member State holds criminal records of a third-country national. In its report on the proposal, the Parliament’s LIBE committee insisted that all criminal records data should be stored solely in databases operated by the Member States within the territory of the Union, and proposed to grant Europol and Frontex access to the database. In its conclusions of June 2016, the Council expressed its support for a centralised automated system for the storage and exchange of both fingerprints and alphanumeric data and encouraged further discussion at the level of experts. The Commission has committed to put forward a revised proposal in June 2017