Electronic Register

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini said on Friday, Jan. 25, that the register would be similar to the electronic scanning of fingerprints and eyes at US ports of entry. He added that it would be part of a series of EU initiatives seeking to use modern technology to target overstayers -- third-country nationals who enter the EU legally but then become illegal immigrants by extending their stay beyond their visa expiry date.

Frattini also wants to improve the bloc's fight against illegal immigrants by replacing its current visa system with an electronic travel authorization (ETA).

The electronic visa, similar to one already in place in Australia, would also include a traveler's biometric data, such as electronic photos and fingerprints.

"I will present in February a package of measures aimed at improving the capacity of the EU to protect its external borders," Frattini said at an informal meeting of EU justice and interior

ministers in Slovenia, the current holder of the bloc's presidency.

The package, which European Commission sources said would be submitted to the EU executive on Feb.13, aimed to make a "better use of existing technology", Frattini said.

Hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants live in the EU's 27 member states.

"One of the main problems we face now is overstayers -- people who enter the EU legally and then disappear because they stay over the allowed period," Frattini said. "This cannot be tolerated. Overstayers are the factor number one of illegal immigration."

Upbeat about Schengen expansion

Managing overstayers has become an increasingly difficult task, particularly since December, when the EU expanded its borderless area to include nine new countries, most of them from eastern Europe.

The countries joined the so-called Schengen agreement amid concerns that its expansion would make it easier for criminals and illegal immigrants to enter the bloc.

Such concerns have been felt particularly in Germany, where there have been widespread reports about scores of Chechen refugees with asylum status in Poland crossing its eastern border.

"None of the fears has come true," said Peter Altmaier, state secretary at the German interior ministry. "As far as we know, Schengen is a big success."

EU Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini hailed the successes of the enlarged Schengen area, noting that the program's shared database on criminals had since lead to the arrest of "some 100 suspects" in the new member states.

Frattini added that the influx of Chechen refugees into Germany and Austria showed that there was a pressing need for a common EU policy on asylum, another issue due to be debated by ministers in Brdo, near the Slovenian capital Ljubljana.

Success or failure?

Slovenian Interior Minister Dragutin Mate, whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency, also said that things looked very good. He said that Slovenian border patrol alone had confiscated 140 stolen vehicles and prevented 1,700 people on EU blacklists from entering the bloc.

Germany's police union meanwhile on Wednesday said that border patrols had stopped 564 foreigners without visa along Germany's borders with Poland and the Czech Republic since border controls fell on Dec. 21, an increase of 150 percent when compared to the year before.

Altmaier conceded that more Chechens had come to Germany in the first two weeks after the border fell, but added that they had been returned to Poland, the EU country they had first entered. According to EU rules, asylum seekers are dealt with in the country they first enter.

"These are normal procedures," he said.

Debate on passenger data sharing

European Union justice and interior ministers were also expected to discuss plans to share airline passengers' data in a bid to prevent terrorists from entering the 27-member bloc.

The so-called European Passenger Name Record (PNR) would be modeled according to a similar system introduced by the United States in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

"Terrorism remains the number one threat," Frattini said.

Frattini, who first floated the idea over the summer, said a European PNR was "absolutely necessary" and should therefore be adopted "as soon as possible."

But his plans have been met with resistance from civil liberties' advocates, who fear that collecting details about a person's travel arrangements in and out of the EU would violate their privacy.

Details about a traveler's airline ticket, including how it was paid for, would be shared among all EU member states, as well as with third countries such as the US. The EU insists it will not divulge sensitive information about a traveler's ethnic origins or political and religious beliefs.