Protocol amending the Treaty concerning a European Vehicle and Driving Licence Information System (EUCARIS)

Preamble

The States Parties to the Treaty concerning a European Vehicle and Driving Licence Information System (EUCARIS), signed at Luxembourg on 29 June 2000,

Have agreed as follows:

Article I

(1) Article 1 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 1

In this Treaty the term:

1. "Party" denotes any State that is a party to the Treaty, i.e. either a contracting Party or a Party having acceded to the Treaty;

2. "Third Party" denotes any State, not being a Party as mentioned in Article 1.1, or public entity operating outside the jurisdiction of a State, that makes use of EUCARIS for any data exchange based on an EU legal act or on any bilateral or multilateral agreement ;

3. "central registration authorities" denotes the authorities of the Parties which are responsible for managing the central registers of vehicles and driving licences;

4. "national regulations" denotes all legal and administrative regulations of a Party for the implementation of which the central registration authorities of this Party are responsible, in whole or in part, with regard to:

a) the licensing or registration of vehicles, and

b) the issuing and registration of driving licences;

5. "personal data" denotes any information about a particular or identifiable person.

(2) Article 2 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 2

(1) The central registration authorities shall set up and maintain a common system for the exchange of vehicle and driving licence data, hereinafter referred to as the "European Vehicle and Driving Licence Information System", known as EUCARIS.

(2) The purpose of EUCARIS is:

i) to ensure that the central vehicle and driving licence registers of the Parties are accurate and reliable;

ii) to assist in preventing, investigating and prosecuting offences against the laws of individual States in the field of driving licences, vehicle registration and other vehicle-related fraud and criminality;

iii) to exchange information rapidly in order to increase the efficiency of administrative measures taken by the relevant authorities according to the national regulations of the Parties; and

iv) to be at the disposal for Parties or Third Parties wishing to exchange data based on an EU legal act or any bilateral or multilateral agreement other than this Treaty.

(3) Article 3 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 3

Within the framework of EUCARIS, the central registration authorities shall allow one another to ac-cess a selected part of the data stored in the central vehicle and driving licence registers of the Par-ties.

For this purpose, each central registration authority shall have its own hardware which, by using com-mon software, shall allow access to the data from its own central vehicle and driving licence registers for the purpose of achieving the aim of the Treaty and shall give access to the data from the central vehicle and driving licence registers of the other Parties.

(4) Article 4 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 4

In order to achieve the purpose set out in Article 2, paragraph (2), subparagraph i) to iii), the

central registration authorities shall, using automated procedures, retrieve the data as mentioned in Articles 3 and 5 from the central vehicle and driving licence registers in order to perform the following duties:

a) Central vehicle register:

If an application to register a vehicle is made in the area of responsibility of a central registration authority and if that vehicle has previously been registered in the area of responsibility of another central registration authority, the information provided by the applicant shall be checked against the information from the central vehicle register of the Party in whose territory the vehicle was previously registered.

If the information provided by the applicant leads to the conclusion that the vehicle was previously registered in the territory of another Party, the information provided by the applicant should also be checked against the information from the central vehicle register of that Party.

b) Central driving licence register:

If an application for a driving licence is made in the area of responsibility of a central registration authority, that authority may, by inspecting the information from the central driving licence registers of the other Parties, check whether the applicant has in the past been issued with a driving licence that is still valid.

The same procedure shall be followed if an application is made for the replacement or the exchange of a driving licence that has been issued in the area of responsibility of another central registration authority.

If a driving licence that has been issued in the area of responsibility of another central registration authority is presented to a central registration authority for registration, a data check shall be made against the information in the central driving licence register of the Party in whose territory the driving licence has been issued

(5) Article 5 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 5

(1) The following data shall be available for retrieval through the automated procedure used by the central registration authorities:

a) Central vehicle register:

i) make;

ii) commercial description;

iii) vehicle identification number;

iv) registration number;

v) date of first registration;

vi) type of fuel or power source;

vii) status indicating that the vehicle is stolen.

b) Central driving licence register:

i) number of the licence;

ii) surname of the holder;

iii) other names of the holder;

iv) date and place of birth;

v) (sub)category(ies) of vehicle(s) the holder is entitled to drive;

vi) administrative remarks or restrictions in code form;

vii) date of issue;

viii) date of expiry;

ix) status indicating that a category has become invalid or disqualified.

(2) In addition to the data mentioned in paragraph (1) further optional data may be made available for retrieval through automated procedure by the central registration authorities for both the central vehicle register and the central driving licence register; these data shall be listed in a document to be approved by the General Assembly in accordance with Article 19 paragraph (2) letter b).

(3) This document may only list the data that serve the purposes of this Treaty set out in Article 2 paragraph (2) subparagraphs i) to iii).

(4) Agreements concerning the retrieval of other information by the central registration authorities within the framework of national regulations are not affected.

(6) Article 6, sentence 1 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 6

In order to achieve the purpose set out in Article 2 paragraph (2) subparagraph i) to iii), the

central registration authorities shall, in accordance with the national regulations of the Parties, arrange for action to be taken to clarify the situation before taking further administrative measures, if there is any doubt about the actual or legal conditions of the vehicles or driving licences.

[…]

(7) Article 8 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 8

(1) The Parties shall take the appropriate action to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty are ob-served.

(2) Direct access to the data referred to in Article 5 is restricted to the central registration authorities of the Parties.

(3) These authorities are responsible, on behalf of their Party, for the correct operation of EUCARIS, and shall take the appropriate action to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty are observed.

(4) In order to achieve the purposes set out in Article 2 paragraph (2) subparagraphs i) to iii) and in accordance with the national regulations of the Parties, the administrative authorities responsible for registering vehicles and issuing and registering driving licences as well as the national police, customs, prosecution and national security authorities are allowed to request information from EUCARIS through the central registration authorities. This information may only be supplied to other entities in compliance with the provisions of the national legislation of the receiving Party and Directive 95/46/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council of 24 October 1995 on the pro-tection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free movement of such data, including any act amending or replacing this Directive.

(8) A new Article 8a shall be added:

Article 8a

(1) Access for Parties and Third Parties to the data stored ready for retrieval under an EU legal act or any bilateral or multilateral agreement other than this Treaty is restricted to the authorities responsible under that act or agreement.

(2) These authorities are expected to be responsible for the correct operation and use of EUCARIS.

(3) Technical measures in the form of independent request and response messages and specific functions of data exchange for the various application purposes shall ensure that authorities of Parties and Third Parties only have access to data regarding which they are authorised under the relevant EU legal act or the relevant bilateral or multilateral agreement.

(9) Article 9 of the Treaty shall be deleted.

(10) Article 10 of the Treaty shall be deleted.

(11) Article 11, paragraph 1 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 11

(1) The Parties shall use information transmitted under EUCARIS only in order to achieve the purposes set out in Article 2 paragraph (2) subparagraphs i) to iii).

(12) Article 12 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 12

If information is exchanged between central registration authorities under EUCARIS, the central registration authority providing the information shall be informed on request of the use to which the information provided is to be put and of the follow up action taken.

(13) Article 17 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 17

The central registration authorities shall ensure that records are produced and that records kept by them on the information retrieved from the central registration authorities of the Parties comply with national data protection requirements.

These records shall

1. contain the reason for the retrieval, details of information retrieved and the date and time of retrievals;

2. be used only for audit purposes;

3. be suitably protected against misapplication and against other misuse;

4. be deleted after twelve months, alternatively handled in compliance with the national legislation of the Parties concerning the filing and deletion of records.

(14) Article 18 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 18

Each Party or Third Party shall respect Regulation (EC) No 45/2001 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 December 2000 on the protection of individuals with regard to the processing of personal data by the Community institutions and bodies and on the free movement of such data and, according to Directive 95/46/EC, appoint its national supervisory authorities which have the task of fully independently monitoring the compliance with the data protection provisions of the Treaty. This Article shall also apply to any act amending or replacing this Regulation or Directive.

The supervisory bodies shall carry out independent supervision and checks in accordance with their particular national legal regulations in order to ensure that the rights of the persons concerned are not infringed by the retrieval and use of the information. For this purpose the supervisory bodies shall have access to EUCARIS.

(15) Article 19 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 19

(1) There shall be a General Assembly consisting of representatives of all Parties and Third Parties.

The General Assembly shall meet every year in regular session and in such special sessions as may be necessary.

(2) The General Assembly shall be responsible for:

a. the implementation and correct application of the provisions of the Treaty;

b. the approval of the document mentioned in Article 5 paragraph (2) containing the list of optional data available for retrieval in addition to the data mentioned in Article 5 paragraph (1);

c. the correct technical and operational functioning of EUCARIS;

d. all financial matters concerning EUCARIS.

The General Assembly may establish subsidiary organs or bodies as it deems necessary for its functioning.

The General Assembly shall adopt its Rules of Procedure with a four-fifth majority.

(3) Each State shall have one vote, irrespective of the number of delegates that each Party or Third Party delegates to the General Assembly and irrespective of the number of connections, services or users.

(4) Decisions or resolutions on matters concerning the Treaty, the data set mentioned in Article 5 paragraph (2) and applications of States to accede to the Treaty shall be made by the Parties only with a four-fifth majority, with at least a half of all the Parties represented. The General Assembly shall regulate the voting procedure concerning all other matters in its Rules of Procedure.

(16) Article 20 of the Treaty shall be replaced by:

Article 20

(1) The costs of operating and applying EUCARIS by the Parties and Third Parties on their territory shall be borne by the Party concerned or the Third Party concerned, respectively.

(2) Subject to prior approval by the General Assembly the common expenses incurred in implementing the Treaty shall be borne by the Parties and Third Parties.

Article II

(1) The present Protocol is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval. The instruments of ratification, acceptance or approval shall be deposited with the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg which shall be the Depositary of this Protocol.

(2) This Protocol shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date of receipt by the Depositary of the second instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval of the Protocol.

(3) For the Contracting Parties that deposit their instrument of ratification, acceptance or approval of the Protocol after its entry into force, the Protocol shall enter into force on the first day of the second month following the date on which the instrument was deposited with the Depositary.

(4) Any State that accedes to the Treaty in accordance with Article 24 of the Treaty after the entry into force of this Protocol accedes to the amended Treaty.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF the undersigned, duly authorised thereto, have signed this Protocol.

DONE at Luxembourg on June 8, 2017 in the Dutch, English, French and German languages, the four texts being equally authentic, in one original which shall be deposited with the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, which shall transmit a certified copy to each Contracting Party.

For the Kingdom of Belgium,

For the Federal Republic of Germany,

For the Republic of Latvia,

For the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg,

For the Kingdom of the Netherlands,

For Romania,

For the Slovak Republic

For the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland

 

Joint Declaration

The States Parties to the Treaty concerning a European Vehicle and Driving Licence Information System (EUCARIS), signed at Luxembourg on 29 June 2000, agree on a common understanding that Article 1, number 2, Article 2, paragraph 2 under iv) and Article 8a of the Treaty as amended by the Protocol, signed today, shall be interpret-ed in the way that EUCARIS may be used for functional services concerning the ex-change of vehicle or transport related data, if automated exchange of the data is al-lowed or compulsory in the EU legal act, bilateral agreement, multilateral agreement or national legislation that is the basis for this exchange.

Comments and Explanations on the Changes

General remark

The main reason for amending the EUCARIS Treaty is the fact that EUCARIS as a technical system is used in the meantime not only for the data exchange ac-cording to the Treaty but also for the data exchange based on other EU legal acts (like the CBE directive and the Prüm Council decisions) or bi- or multilateral agreements. This multifunctional use of EUCARIS is not reflected in the current EUCARIS Treaty. The main aim for the changes is therefore to extend the Treaty by an "opening clause" as the legal basis for using EUCARIS for other purposes. Additionally some editorial changes and clarifications were made.

Change of Article 1

Number 1 clarifies that a Party is always a State (and not an organization)

In number 2 the term Third Party is defined. A Third Party is either a State, not being a Party to the Treaty, or a public entity, operating outside the jurisdiction of a State (e.g. the Commission), that uses EUCARIS for any da-ta exchange based on an EU legal act or a bi- or multilateral agreement. A Third Party could never be a private organization.

Change of Article 2

In paragraph (2) subparagraph iii) the term "national regulations" as de-fined in Article 1 number 4 is used instead of "legal and administrative regulations" (like in the other language versions of the Treaty).

With the new subparagraph iv) the purposes of EUCARIS are enlarged to be available for the usage by Third Parties.

Change of Article 5

The original Article 5 of the EUCARIS Treaty defines the mandatory data which shall be available for retrieval through the automated procedure for the purposes of the Treaty. This mandatory set of data has to be defined in the Treaty itself. But it should exist a possibility to define additional optional data without the necessity to change the Treaty. So the new paragraphs (2) and (3) give the EUCARIS General Assembly (former Participants' Board, see explanations to Article 19) the right to list further optional data in a document which has to be approved by the General Assembly. With this procedure it will be possible to adapt the list of data flexibly according to new developments and requirements without changing the Treaty itself. The optional data can be delivered if they are available in the national register, but there is no obligation to do so. With the reference to (the new) Article 19 paragraph (2) letter b) it is stated in which way the list has to be approved by the General Assembly.

The new paragraph (3) restricts the list of data to those data that are necessary to achieve the purposes of the Treaty by explicitly referring to Article 2 paragraph (2) subparagraphs i) to iii).

The data items listed in paragraph (1) are the same as in the original Treaty. Only the terms have been updated with respect to the general used terms in other EU legislation, especially Directive 1999/37/EC for vehicle data and Directive 2006/126/EC for driving licence data. The new paragraph (4) is the paragraph (2) of the original Treaty.

Change of Article 8

The new paragraph (1) was concluded during the EUCARIS Participants' Board meeting in Oslo in 2014 but then included as the last sentence in Article 8a(2). The sentence clarifies that especially the Parties have to ensure that the provisions of the Treaty itself are observed although the EUCARIS system can be used for other legal purposes. The sentence was transferred to Article 8 for the purpose of the structure of the Treaty.

The new paragraph (4) is a little modified version of the Article 9 of the original EUCARIS Treaty. The first sentence clarifies which authorities have the right to request information from EUCARIS directly via the central registration authorities. The second sentence specifies under which conditions such information may be supplied to other entities. The original EUCARIS Treaty contains in Article 9 a strict prohibition to forward information that is retrieved via EUCARIS to any other body or organisation that is not mentioned in the Treaty. Because of this strict prohibition it was not possible for the Scandinavian countries to sign the Treaty because this rule is not in compliance with the provisions of their national legislation. On the other hand the complete elimination of this prohibition is not acceptable for other countries (e. g. Germany, United Kingdom). After coming to a com-mon interpretation the proposal from the Scandinavian countries was inserted. According to this new provision the forwarding of information to other entities is only allowed in compliance with the national law of the receiving Party and Directive 95/46/EC on data protection. These other entities can be private organisations.

New Article 8a

Article 8a contains - like Article 8 for the original purposes of the EUCARIS Treaty - the comparable provisions for the use of EUCARIS by Third Parties. In paragraph (1) the more general term "access" is used (instead of "direct access") because in the other legal basis relevant for the use by a Third Party not only the "direct access" but also the "access" to the data in general has to be regulated. From the German perspective it is important that it is guaranteed by appropriate provisions in the Treaty, that Third Parties only have access to data for which they are authorized under the relevant legal basis. The provisions of Article 16 of the Treaty are not sufficient. Therefore, Article 8a has been extended by a new para-graph (3) which explicitly contains an appropriate provision. It's self-evident that access is also possible for private organisations but only in the case if these organisations are operating under the mandate of an authorized public authority.

Deletion of Article 9

The provisions of Article 9 are incorporated - in a slight different form - in the new Article 8 paragraph (3). So Article 9 can be deleted.

Deletion of Article 10

Because in the meantime EU legislation in the field of vehicle registration and driving licences covers the aspect of document handling it's not necessary anymore to regulate this separately in the Treaty. So Article 10 can be deleted.

Change of Article 17

The new number iv) gives more flexibility concerning the deletion of the records. In general the records shall be deleted after twelve months, but alternatively a longer or shorter period is possible according to the national legislation.

Change of Article 18

Besides Directive 95/46/EC also Regulation (EC) 45/2001 shall be respected by the Parties and Third Parties.

Change of Article 19

Instead of the term Board the more suitable term General Assembly is used (par-agraph (1)). The General Assembly consists of representatives of all Parties and Third Parties, where each State has one vote irrespective of the number of dele-gates (paragraph (3)). The voting rights of the Third Parties are limited to those matters not concerning the Treaty itself (paragraph (4)). In paragraph (2) the responsibilities of the General Assembly are mentioned. These has been extended by a provision giving the General Assembly the explicit right to approve the document with the list of data mentioned in Article 5 paragraph (2) and the decision on all financial matters. Details (e. g. on subsidiary organs or the voting procedure) can be regulated in the Rules of Procedure (RoP) which has to be adopted by the General Assembly with a four-fifth majority (paragraphs (2) and (4)).

Change of Article 20

The costs shall be borne not only by the Parties but also the Third Parties. Be-cause of different user groups for the different functionalities the expenses normally are not borne anymore in equal shares. A Party or Third Party has to pay - besides the general contribution - only for those functionalities which he uses.