What changed between the draft committee report and the plenary report

The present proposal aims at establishing a common “EU Digital Travel application” and a uniform standard for digital travel credentials, allowing people to cross external air, land and sea borders based on a uniform EU technical solution, and enabling border authorities to carry out checks more efficiently based on these credentials, while reducing bottlenecks and time spent at border-crossing points for travellers.

The proposed Regulation consists of:

 the establishment of an application for the electronic submission of travel data (the ‘EU Digital Travel’ application), its subject matter and scope, including provisions on data transmission and processing;

 the general structure of the EU Digital Travel application, consisting of the application, a backend validation service and a traveller router, including the purpose of each of its technical components;

 provisions on the creation, use, submission, transmission and processing of digital travel credentials;

 rules on the development, operation and maintenance of the EU Digital Travel application and the consequent obligations of eu-LISA;

 the obligations of the Member States in ensuring that they can receive data submitted through the EU Digital Travel application.

The establishment of the Digital Travel application also requires the amendment of several relevant legal acts. Namely, Regulation (EC) No 2252/2004 to establish the technical standard for digital travel credentials and the possibility for applicants to request one; Regulation (EU) 2016/399 concerning the carrying out of border checks as well as the further use of self-service systems and the EU Digital Travel application for those purposes; and Regulation (EU) 2018/1726 with regard to eu-LISA’s tasks in relation to the EU Digital Travel application.

Rapporteur’s position

The rapporteur welcomes the Commission’s proposal but sees the need to introduce additional safeguards to ensure the respect for one’s private life and the protection of personal data as well as the principle of non-discrimination and freedom of movement.

The Rapporteur’s approach is to advocate for the use of the application by travellers over the age of 18, while granting the Commission the power to amend the age limit, provided that the necessary technical requirements and any other relevant conditions are met for the issuance of digital travel credentials to children under the age of 18.

The Rapporteur introduces new provisions to enhance data protection, such as the deletion of the travel data from the national database of the border crossing point by the competent border authorities after the traveller has crossed the external border or in case the traveller does not cross the external border at the intended date and time of arrival or departure.

In the same vein, the Rapporteur recognises the necessity to specify in more detail the features and functionalities of the Traveller Router and the mobile application to be developed by eu-LISA for the purposes of this Regulation.

Furthermore, in order to achieve the objectives of this Regulation, the Rapporteur deems it essential to launch information campaigns aimed at informing the public about the use of the EU Digital Travel application. These campaigns should provide practical guidance on the scanning of the chip in the travel document, thereby ensuring the efficient and seamless functioning of the application.