A Commission staff working document accompanying a report to the European Parliament and the Council, published on 24 June 2026, confirms that by 2024 all 27 EU Member States were connected to the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS), exchanging criminal record information electronically. The United Kingdom has left the system following its withdrawal from the EU. The document provides a comprehensive assessment of ECRIS operations, highlighting that total annual requests reached 1,233,377 in 2024, with 56% of requests for non-criminal purposes such as employment vetting and administrative procedures, and 93% concerning EU nationals. Of the replies, 78% contained no convictions, while 17% included one or more convictions. The Netherlands' data includes not only convictions but also other criminal proceeding decisions, a national variation noted in the report.
ECRIS is a decentralised system where each Member State designates a central authority to exchange information in a standardised format within 10 or 20 working days. A Member State that convicts a national of another Member State must notify that state via ECRIS; the state of nationality stores and updates all received information. Information is exchanged primarily for criminal proceedings, but also for other purposes if national law permits. The system's extension to third-country nationals and stateless persons (ECRIS-TCN) was adopted in 2019 and is scheduled to become operational in 2027, marking a significant expansion of the system's scope.
The report underscores the steady increase in ECRIS usage for both criminal and non-criminal purposes, reflecting its integration into national judicial and administrative processes. The full connectivity of all Member States by 2024 represents a milestone in EU judicial cooperation in criminal matters, enabling faster and more reliable background checks across borders. The upcoming ECRIS-TCN launch will further broaden the system's reach, though its operational date remains two years away. The document does not indicate any major technical or legal obstacles to the extension's implementation.