Instead of stamping passports, info on entry and exit from the EU will be more strictly monitored.
Third-country nationals from outside the EU who cross the external border of the European Union or the Schengen Area, which includes the citizens of Croatian neighbours Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro on their entry into Croatia, will soon no longer receive border stamps in passports. Rather, data on their entry and exit dates will be electronically stored, reports Jutarnji List on 4 July 2017.
The political agreement on the new measures has been reached by the European Parliament and the Council of the European Union, and now they only need to discuss technical details before the decision on the Entry/Exit System (EES) is adopted and implemented. The collected data will be stored in a database for three years, and for five years in exceptional cases. It will help the police and other security services to detect, prevent or investigate perpetrators of serious criminal or terrorist offences coming from outside of the European Union.
The new system of entry and exit controls will provide for an easier detection of third-country nationals who enter the Schengen Area but do not leave it within the period during which they were allowed to stay (often 90 days). Also, the new system should speed up traffic at border crossings because passports of third-country nationals outside of the EU are already systematically scanned and checked in databases. The difference is the introduction of another database which will be used to compare the scanned data, while passport stamping will become history.
Another new feature which is being discussed within the EU institutions and which is expected to be adopted by the end of the year is the ETIAS system, which will enable the authorities to know who is travelling to the European Union even before they arrive there. Once the ETIAS system is activated, all third-country nationals who are not required to have an EU visa will have to register in advance, pay five euros, and get a permit without which they will not be able to enter the EU. If the routine check shows they are suspicious or dangerous, they will not get the permission.
This measure will also apply to nationals of Croatian neighbours, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Serbia, who wish to cross the Croatian border.
