Ceci n’est pas un contrôle: PNR Data Processing and the Reshaping of Borderless Travel in the Schengen Area

2021 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 431-456
Author(s):  
Julien Jeandesboz

Abstract Can national authorities perform systematic checks on persons engaged in cross-border travel in the Schengen area without these checks being considered as border checks or as having an equivalent effect to border checks? The present article investigates a specific set of measures that involve the harnessing of “new technology” to enact systematic controls on persons traveling across the internal borders of Schengen states, through the processing of Passenger Name Record (PNR) data and in the framework of the EU PNR Directive. It argues that PNR data processing should at the same time be understood as part of the alternatives to border checks available for Member States to regulate cross-border mobility in the Schengen area and as a standout among these measures. PNR data processing challenges the existing legal framework of Article 23(a) of the Schengen Borders Code (SBC) as well as the assessment framework developed by the CJEU in its relevant case-law, not because it contravenes Schengen rules, but because it stretches and overflows them. Ultimately, PNR data processing puts into question the very understanding of what checks performed in relation to the act or intention of crossing a border actually stand for or whether controls related to border crossings can be characterised as border controls.

Author(s):  
Valentyna Bohatyrets ◽  
Liubov Melnychuk ◽  
Yaroslav Zoriy

This paper seeks to investigate sustainable cross-border cooperation (CBC) as a distinctive model of interstate collaboration, embedded in the neighboring borderland regions of two or more countries. The focus of the research revolves around the establishment and further development of geostrategic, economic, cultural and scientific capacity of the Ukrainian-Romanian partnership as a fundamental construct in ensuring and strengthening the stability, security and cooperation in Europe. This research highlights Ukraine’s aspirations to establish, develop and diversify bilateral good-neighborly relations with Romania both regionally and internationally. The main objective is to elucidate Ukraine-Romania cross-border cooperation initiatives, inasmuch Ukraine-Romania CBC has been stirring up considerable interest in terms of its inexhaustible historical, cultural and spiritual ties. Furthermore, the similarity of the neighboring states’ strategic orientations grounds the basis for development and enhancement of Ukraine-Romania cooperation. The authors used desk research and quantitative research to conclude that Ukraine-Romania CBC has the impact not only on the EU and on Ukraine multi-vector foreign policy, but it also has the longer-term global consequences. In the light of the current reality, the idea of introducing and reinforcing the importance of Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) sounds quite topical and relevant. This research considers a number of explanations for Ukraine-Romania Cross-Border Cooperation as a key element of the EU policy towards its neighbors. Besides, the subject of the research is considered from different perspectives in order to show the diversity and complexity of the Ukraine-Romania relations in view of the fact that sharing common borders we are presumed to find common solutions. As the research has demonstrated, the Ukraine-Romania cross border cooperation is a pivotal factor of boosting geostrategic, economic, political and cultural development for each participant country, largely depending on the neighboring countries’ cohesion and convergence. Significantly, there is an even stronger emphasis on the fact that while sharing the same borders, the countries share common interests and aspirations for economic thriving, cultural exchange, diplomatic ties and security, guaranteed by a legal framework. The findings of this study have a number of important implications for further development and enhancement of Ukraine-Romania cooperation. Accordingly, the research shows how imperative are the benefits of Romania as a strategic partner for outlining top priorities of Ukraine’s foreign policy.


Author(s):  
Matteo Gargantini ◽  
Carmine Di Noia ◽  
Georgios Dimitropoulos

This chapter analyzes the current regulatory framework for cross-border distribution of investment funds and submits some proposals to improve it. The chapter is organized as follows. Section 2 provides a schematic description of the legal taxonomy for collective investment schemes. Section 3 addresses the EU disclosure regimes that apply to the distribution of various types of investment funds. Sections 4 and 5 consider conduct-of-business rules and, respectively, the legal framework for the allocation of supervisory powers on product regulation when fund units are distributed in more than one country. Section 6 provides some data that help assess the performance of the current framework for cross-border distribution. It then analyzes some of the residual legal rules and supervisory practices that still make cross-border distributions of funds more burdensome than purely national distributions, whether these restrictions are set forth in the country where investors are domiciled (Section 7) or in the fund's home country (Section 8).


2021 ◽  
pp. 239965442110000
Author(s):  
Eeva-Kaisa Prokkola

The past decade has witnessed a shift from “open borders” policies and cross-border cooperation towards heightened border securitization and the building of border walls. In the EU context, since the migration influx of 2015–2016, many Member States have retained the re-instituted Schengen border controls intended to be temporary. Such heightened border securitization has produced high levels of anxiety among various populations and increased societal polarization. This paper focuses on the processes underpinning asylum seeker reception at the re-bordered Finnish-Swedish border and in the Finnish border town of Tornio. The asylum process is studied from the perspective of local authorities and NGO actors active in the everyday reception, care and control practices in the border securitization environment enacted in Tornio in 2015. The analysis highlights how the ‘success’ of everyday reception work at the Tornio border crossing was bound to the historical openness of the border and pre-existing relations of trust and cooperation between different actors at various scales. The paper thus provides a new understanding of the significance of borders and border crossings from the perspective of resilience and highlights some of the paradoxes of border securitization. It notes that although border closures are commonly envisioned as a direct response to forced migration, the everyday practices and capacities of the asylum reception at the Finnish-Swedish border are themselves highly dependent on pre-existing border crossings and cross-border cooperation.


2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (2) ◽  
pp. 141-157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marion Del Sol ◽  
Marco Rocca

The European Union appears to be promoting at the same time both cross-national mobility of workers and an increased role for occupational pensions. There is, however, a potential tension between these two objectives because workers risk losing (some of) their pension rights under an occupational scheme as a consequence of their mobility. After long negotiations, the EU has addressed this issue through a minimum standards Directive. Shortly before the adoption of this Directive, the Court of Justice also delivered an important decision in the same field, in the case of Casteels v British Airways. By analysing the resulting legal framework for safeguarding pension rights under occupational schemes in the context of workers’ mobility, we argue that the application of the case law developed by the Court of Justice in the field of free movement of workers has the potential to offer superior protection compared to the Directive. We also highlight the fact that the present legal framework seems to afford a much fuller protection to the intra-company cross-national mobility of workers employed by multinational companies, while also seemingly favouring mobility for highly specialised workers.


2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (4) ◽  
pp. 664-684
Author(s):  
Christian Heinze ◽  
Cara Warmuth

Abstract In March 2018, the European Commission issued its proposal for a regulation on the law applicable to third-party effects of assignments of claims, aiming to put an end to the ongoing debate on this issue and the legal uncertainty associated with it. On the basis of the Commission’s decision in favour of the application of the law of the assignor’s habitual residence, this article discusses the consequences of the Proposal under European Union (EU) insolvency law. For that purpose, the coherence of the Proposal with the Insolvency Regulation will be examined, first in general and then in more detail. The analysis comes to the result that the Commission’s objective of aligning the Proposal with the legal framework of the Insolvency Regulation has predominantly been well achieved. The authors point out remaining minor inaccuracies that may be clarified in the further legislative process or by later case law. It is concluded that, from the perspective of international insolvency law, the proposed uniform conflict-of-laws rule at the EU level offers a good opportunity to promote legal certainty with regard to cross-border assignments of claims in the future.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (102) ◽  
pp. 305
Author(s):  
Rosario Serra Cristóbal

Resumen:La gestión coordinada de las fronteras y el funcionamiento eficaz de los sistemas de tratamiento de datos de circulación de personas pueden servir como mecanismo de alerta temprana frente al riesgo de ataques terroristas. Puede fortalecer la capacidad colectiva de los Estados para detectar, prevenir y combatir el terrorismo al facilitar el intercambio oportuno de información, permitiendo así adoptar de forma responsable decisiones cruciales.Este trabajo analiza los concretos instrumentos de gestión de datos en fronteras que pueden ser útiles en la lucha antiterrorista, porque el primer paso en inteligencia reside en la obtención de información, que luego será analizada y tratada para convertir esa información en conocimiento. Como tendremos oportunidad de comprobar, muchas de las bases de datos en fronteras se crearon para controlar la entrada de inmigrantes en las fronteras europeas, pero la información que ofrecen dichos sistemas puede servir también para luchar contra ese reto que nos amenaza, el del terrorismo yihadista. No obstante, este trabajo subraya que se trata de fenómenos distintos.Es cierto que la nueva oleada de ataques yihadistas ha coincidido, en el mismo espacio temporal, con la mayor crisis migratoria a la que se ha tenido que enfrentar Europa debido a crisis humanitarias y posteriormente a la guerra de Siria u otros conflictos. Pero, no son lo mismo. El terrorismo yihadista y la inmigración poco o nada tienen que ver, por mucho que se hayan querido vincular o se hayan pretendido justificar determinadas políticas contra la inmigración como algo necesario para luchar contra el terrorismo yihadista, con el fácil argumento de que frenando la inmigración se evita la entrada de potenciales terroristas en Europa.El trabajo advierte del riesgo de que la lucha contra el terrorismo sea utilizada para reforzar los controles de personas en las fronteras con el verdadero objetivo de frenar los flujos migratorios. Al tiempo, subraya la necesidad de que en dichos controles se sigan directrices y prácticas claras y se respeten plenamente las obligaciones que los Estados tienen de conformidad con el Derecho internacional, tal como ha recordado el Tribunal Europeo de Derechos Humanos y el Tribunal de Justicia de la Unión Europea. De hecho, no son pocos los casos en los que estos Tribunales han subrayado la relevancia indubitada de principios como la reserva de ley, la necesidad o la proporcionalidad como sustrato de la licitud de muchas medidas que incluyen el tratamiento de datos personales.Summary:1. Jihadist terrorism as a cross-border phenomenon. 2. The benefit of data exchange on crossing-borders in the Schengen area. 3. New guidelines on data processing and the safeguard of national security. 4. The register of passengers (The Personal Name Record or PNR). 5. When the data cross the external borders. The exchange of data with third countries. 5.1. The failed PNR Agreement with Canada and the EU Court of Justice’s standards regarding the transfer of passengers’ data. 5.2. The exchange of data with the United States. The EU-US Umbrella Agreement and the Privacy Shield. 6. The use of profiles and blacklists of alleged terrorists in cross-bording. 7. ConclusionsAbstract:EU Coordinated border management and effective functioning of data processing systems related to the movement of persons may serve as an early warning mechanism against the risk of terrorist attacks. It can strengthen the collective capacity of States to detect, prevent and combat terrorism by facilitating the timely exchange of information, thereby enabling crucial decisions to be adopted in a responsible manner.This paper analyzes the concrete border data management tools that can be useful in the fight against terrorism. The first step in intelligence lies in obtaining information, which will then be analyzed and treated to turn that information into useful knowledge. As we will have an opportunity to verify, numerous border databases were created to control the entry of immigrants into European borders, but the information offered by these systems can also serve to fight against this challenge that threatens us, that of jihadist terrorism.Nevertheless, we emphasize that terrorism and immigration are different phenomena. The truth is that the new wave of Jihadist attacks took place along the largest migratory crisis that Europe faced due to different humanitarian crises and to the war in Syria and other conflicts. But they represent different realities. Jihadist terrorism and immigration have little or nothing in common. In spite of this, many wish to link both with a view to justify certain anti-immigration policies as necessary actions for coping with Jihadist terrorism. This has been done based on a simple narrative: holding back immigration prevents the entry of potential terrorists in Europe.This paper shows that the risk that the fight against terrorism will be used as a basis to reinforce people controls at the borders, while the true objective of these measures is to curb migratory flows. At the same time, it underlines the need for clear guidelines and practices to be followed when implementing such controls. It also vindicates the need for States to observe their obligations laid down by international law, as recalled by the European Court of Human Rights and the EU Court of the Justice. In fact, in many cases, these jurisdictions highlighted the undoubted relevance of the statutory reserve principle, the principle of necessity or the principle of proportionality, as legal basis for the adoption of measures that include personal data processing.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 121-134
Author(s):  
Sandra Sakolciová

There is no doubt that social media have become a very important part of many people’s everyday life. The consequences of their usage is an increased engagement in defamation, most likely due to the aspect of anonymity present in the online environment. Such cross-border (or more precisely border-less) defamation raises difficult challenges in terms of jurisdiction and applicable law. These challenges, which will be analysed in more detail in the article, remain unresolved up until today. Moreover, negative effects occur not only within private international law itself, but status quo significantly influences the exercise of basic human rights, too. Besides analysing the existing EU legal framework and applicable case-law, the article also looks into the possible alternatives.


Significance Meeting in Ohrid on November 10, the leaders of Serbia, North Macedonia and Albania pledged to abolish border controls and work towards an integrated economic area. Such regional cooperation is moving centre stage with the slowdown of the EU enlargement process. Impacts Serbia’s president is using Mini-Schengen and closer ties to his North Macedonian and Albanian counterparts to assert regional leadership. North Macedonia is likely to be a major beneficiary if the scheme delivers improved cross-border connectivity. The Zagreb EU-WB6 summit could lead to an upgrade of such existing organisations as CEFTA and the Energy Community.


Author(s):  
Smijter Eddy De ◽  
Gasparon Philipp ◽  
Berghe Pascal

This chapter studies the cooperation between the European Commission and competition authorities and courts outside the EU, at both bilateral and multilateral level, and highlights the importance of that cooperation in the context of proliferation of competition regimes and the continual increase in cross-border business activities. In more than half of its enforcement activities, the Commission cooperates with one or more foreign jurisdictions, obviously with varying degrees of intensity. The bulk of this international cooperation, in the fields of both merger control and anticompetitive practices, is with the U.S. and the Canadian competition authorities. The chapter then sets out the legal framework for international cooperation and explains the principles determining the Commission’s jurisdiction in cases having an international dimension. It also considers cooperation in antitrust enforcement, with particular attention given to the exchange of information and disclosure of evidence.


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