EU – Baltic States, Legislation, Tourism, Transport

The legislative proposals for ETIAS and eu-LISA, put forward by the Commission in November 2016 and June 2017 respectively, were identified as political priorities under the Joint Declaration on the EU's legislative priorities for 2018-2019. Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Dimitris Avramopoulos and Commissioner for the Security Union Julian King welcomed the adoption.

"At the beginning of this Commission we committed to deliver a Europe that protects – and today, we take one more, important step towards this goal. A stronger eu-LISA will be the nerve centre of our information systems for borders, migration and security, and the new ETIAS will ensure that we no longer have an information gap on visa-free travellers. Anyone who poses a migratory or security risk will be identified before they even travel to EU borders, while the travel of bona fide travellers will be facilitated. I want to thank both rapporteurs for their leadership and commitment to building a safer Union for our citizens,'' Commissioner Avramopoulos said.

"Our police officers and border guards need to have the right tools to do their jobs – keeping our citizens safe and our borders secure. ETIAS will pre-screen visa-free visitors for potential security problems, while the reinforced eu-LISA will allow us to continue to modernise EU-wide information systems for law enforcement and border management,'' Commissioner King added.

The ETIAS authorisation is not a visa. Once operational, it will carry out pre-travel screening for security and migration risks of travellers benefiting from visa-free access to the Schengen area. When arriving at the EU borders travellers will need to have both a valid travel document and an ETIAS authorisation.

Travellers will have to pay a one-off EUR 7 fee (for travellers between 18 and 70 years old) and the authorisation issued will be valid for three years.

ETIAS will cross-check data provided by visa-exempt travellers against the EU information systems for borders, security and migration, including the Schengen Information System (SIS), the Visa Information System (VIS), Eurodac, Europol and Interpol databases.