Explainers

The EU has established a common visa policy for travellers transiting through or intending to stay for a short period in the Schengen area.

The EU has suspended the simplified visa procedure for Russian citizens. What are the visa agreements currently in place with non-EU countries?

The EU's migration and asylum policy aims to manage migration effectively, ensure fair responsibility-sharing between member states and protect the rights of people seeking international protection.

Eurodac is a modern EU database that uses biometric and identity data to improve the identification of asylum seekers and irregular migrants and support asylum and migration management in the EU.

Authorities across the EU share information through large-scale IT systems to protect citizens, fight crime, and secure borders.

The Schengen area allows more than 450 million people to travel freely between member countries without going through border controls.

The EU has introduced a set of rules to manage migration more effectively and establish a common European asylum system. This system ensures efficient and uniform procedures, and solidarity and fair responsibility-sharing between member states.

The sharing of passenger data is useful in preventing, detecting and prosecuting terrorist offences and serious crime. The passenger name record directive aims to regulate the transfer of such basic data from the airlines to national authorities, while the advance passenger information regulations sets rules for the collection and transfer of more personal data to national authorities.

The EU has adopted various rules to manage legal migration flows, process asylum requests and return people staying illegally in the EU.