A Commission report published on 24 June 2026 finds that the European Criminal Records Information System (ECRIS) has reached full technical interconnection among all 27 Member States since 2022, with 702 stable links and message volumes recovering to nearly 4.8 million in 2024 after a pandemic and Brexit-related drop. However, the report highlights serious compliance gaps: several Member States fail to notify all convictions, send updates, or reply to requests, undermining the system's reliability and security purpose.
The report, addressed to the European Parliament and the Council, notes that total messages exchanged grew to nearly 4.8 million in 2024 (average 400,000 per month), up from 3.8 million in 2021. Requests for information now exceed notifications of new convictions nearly fivefold, with 1.2 million requests versus 260,000 notifications in 2024. Of the 2024 requests, 56% were for non-criminal purposes, such as background checks for jobs involving children or self-requests. Between 2020 and 2024, 1.27 million convictions of other Member States' nationals were recorded, averaging 250,000 per year.
Despite the system's technical completeness, the report identifies significant compliance failures. Not all convictions are notified: Denmark fails to notify 70% of convictions, Ireland 63%, Slovakia 57%, Romania 43%, and Luxembourg 15%. Estonia and Slovenia sent zero updates, while Bulgaria, Greece, Ireland, and Malta sent very few. Furthermore, 317,000 requests (5.8%) between 2020 and 2024 received no reply, mostly from Cyprus, Bulgaria, Croatia, Spain, and Greece. In 2024, 9.7% of replies were late, and 38,000 requests expired without any reply. Only 16.6% of 2024 replies contained prior conviction information. Exchanges on third-country nationals remain at 7% of requests (88,000), a figure expected to rise with the ECRIS-TCN system scheduled for 2027.
The report's findings carry implications for several stakeholders. For EU citizens and employers, incomplete notifications and unanswered requests undermine the system's ability to prevent individuals with criminal records from working with vulnerable groups, such as children. For national authorities, the compliance gaps create administrative burdens and reduce trust in the system. For the European Commission, the report may prompt further enforcement actions or legislative proposals to address the gaps. For third-country nationals, the upcoming ECRIS-TCN expansion will increase data exchange but also raises privacy and data protection concerns. The Commission's report serves as a basis for the Council and Parliament to consider next steps, potentially including infringement procedures against non-compliant Member States or revisions to the ECRIS legal framework.