On 13 October 2022, eu-LISA held its Annual Conference, “10 Years as The Digital Heart of Schengen”, marking the Agency’s 10th anniversary. Organised in cooperation with the Czech Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the event was held in Tallinn, Estonia and online.
Throughout its ten-year history, eu-LISA has been playing a critical role in upholding one of the EU citizens’ fundamental rights, the right to free movement in the Schengen Area, whilst also helping to guarantee the highest level of security for its citizens. The three existing large-scale IT systems under the Agency’s responsibility, Eurodac, SIS and VIS, are key to ensuring the efficiency of border management and internal security in the EU. These systems have undergone constant evolution to respond to the challenges, threats, emergencies and crises faced by Europe. The Agency is also working on additional building blocks that will contribute to the digitalisation of both EU border & migration management and the e-Justice domain, namely EES, ETIAS, ECRIS-TCN, the Interoperability architecture, and the takeover of e-CODEX. Through all its efforts, eu-LISA is and has been committed to its primary goal - to deliver continuous, uninterrupted, secure and high-quality services to Member States and Associated Countries.
The eu-LISA Anniversary Conference took stock of the Agency’s achievements, milestones and key events over the past ten years. The debate concerning eu-LISA’s current activities concentrated on the growing importance of the existing systems, paving the way for the development of new systems to meet the increasing needs of Member States and EU citizens. eu-LISA’s increased support to the justice community and its tasks in this area were discussed as well. The conference also focussed on looking ahead to envision what the next direction and steps in the Agency’s evolution should be, and the areas where eu-LISA could further contribute to support the EU Institutions’ and Member States’ efforts in making Europe safer and stronger, adhering to the core values of Europe.
