Reporting to the European Parliament and to the Council
The Commission shall submit annually to the European Parliament and to the Council a comprehensive report on the evaluations carried out pursuant to this Regulation during the previous year. That report shall be made public.
The report referred to in the first paragraph shall include information on the evaluations carried out during the previous year, on the functioning of the pool of experts, including the availability of Member State experts, on the conclusions drawn from those evaluations and on the state of play with regard to remedial actions taken by the Member States. That report shall, on the basis of the results of the evaluation and monitoring activities carried out pursuant to this Regulation, identify common issues, best practices and innovative solutions in order to improve the implementation of the Schengen acquis. The report shall take into account synergies with other monitoring tools and mechanisms in order to increase awareness about the functioning of the area without internal border control.
The Commission shall transmit the report referred to in the first paragraph to the national parliaments without delay. The Council shall discuss the report, considering the contribution of the evaluations to the functioning of the area without internal border control.
The Commission shall inform the European Parliament and the Council at least twice a year about the state of play with regard to the implementation of action plans drawn up by the Member States. In particular, the Commission shall provide information on its reviews of the adequacy of action plans and on the outcome of revisits and verification visits, as well as its observations where it considers that there has been a considerable lack of progress in the implementation of an action plan.
Schengen Evaluation Guide
The Commission, in close cooperation with the Member States, shall establish and, if necessary, update guidelines on, in particular:
(a)
training responsibilities of experts, the Commission representatives and observers;
(b)
preparatory activities for evaluations;
(c)
conducting visits, including unannounced visits;
(d)
conducting evaluation and monitoring activities, including by questionnaire or, exceptionally, by other remote methods;
(e)
drafting process and the inclusion of documentary and digital material in evaluation reports;
(f)
follow-up procedure, in particular regarding revisits and verification visits;
(g)
synergies with other evaluation and monitoring activities;
(h)
logistics and financial issues relating to the organisation of evaluation and monitoring activities;
(i)
the verification of the activities of the Union bodies, offices and agencies insofar as they perform functions on behalf of the Member States to assist in the operational application of provisions of the Schengen acquis .
Review
The Commission shall undertake a review of the application of this Regulation and submit a report to the Council within 6 months of the adoption of all evaluation reports regarding the evaluations covered by the first multiannual evaluation programme adopted in accordance with this Regulation. That review shall cover all the elements of this Regulation, including the functioning of the procedures for adopting acts under the evaluation mechanism. The Commission shall submit the report to the European Parliament without delay.
Sensitive information
1. The team members, observers and trainee experts shall regard as confidential any information they acquire in the course of performing their duties.
2. The classification status of the reports shall be ‘sensitive non-classified’ in accordance with Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/443. They shall be classified as ‘RESTREINT UE/EU RESTRICTED’ within the meaning of Decision (EU, Euratom) 2015/444, where such a classification is required pursuant to Article 5(3) of that Decision or following a justified request by the evaluated Member State.
The Commission, after consulting the Member State concerned, shall decide which part of the evaluation report can be made public.
3. The transmission and handling of classified information and documents for the purposes of this Regulation shall take place in compliance with the applicable security rules. Such rules shall not preclude information being made available to the European Parliament and to the relevant Union bodies, offices and agencies referred to in Article 7.
Conditions for the participation of Ireland
1. Experts of Ireland shall only participate in the evaluation of the part of the Schengen acquis in which Ireland has been authorised to participate.
2. The evaluations shall only cover the effective and efficient application by Ireland of the part of the Schengen acquis in which it has been authorised to participate.
3. Ireland shall only take part in the adoption of the recommendations by the Council as regards the part of the Schengen acquis in which it has been authorised to participate.
Committee procedure
1. The Commission shall be assisted by a committee. That committee shall be a committee within the meaning of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011.
2. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 5 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.
Where the committee delivers no opinion, the Commission shall not adopt the draft implementing act and Article 5(4), third subparagraph, of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011 shall apply.
3. Where reference is made to this paragraph, Article 8 of Regulation (EU) No 182/2011, in conjunction with Article 5 thereof, shall apply.
Transitional provisions
1. The first multiannual evaluation programme and the first annual evaluation programme under this Regulation shall be established by 1 December 2022 and shall start on 1 February 2023.
The first multiannual evaluation programme under this Regulation shall take into account the evaluations already carried out under the second multiannual programme adopted under Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013 and shall be drawn up as a continuation of that programme.
2. The standard questionnaire adopted under Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013 shall be used until the standard questionnaire provided for under Article 14 of this Regulation has been established.
3. For evaluations carried out before 1 February 2023, the adoption of evaluation reports and recommendations shall be carried out in accordance with Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013. The follow-up and monitoring activities of such evaluations, starting with the submission of the action plans, shall be carried out in accordance with this Regulation.
Repeal
Regulation (EU) No 1053/2013 is repealed with effect from 1 October 2022, with the exception of the provisions concerning the adoption of the evaluation reports and recommendations, which shall apply until the evaluation reports and recommendations referred to in Article 31(3) of this Regulation are adopted.
References to the repealed Regulation shall be construed as references to this Regulation and shall be read in accordance with the correlation table in the Annex.
Entry into force and application
This Regulation shall enter into force on the twentieth day following that of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union .
It shall apply from 1 October 2022.
Source: EUR-Lex (Publications Office of the EU), © European Union, reuse permitted under Commission Decision 2011/833/EU.
