MIL-OSI Europe: Written question – Schengen Information System (SIS) reporting on returns – E-001100/2025

Question for written answer  E-001100/2025/rev.1
to the Commission
Rule 144
Marieke Ehlers (PfE)

Regulation (EU) 2018/18601[1] requires Member States to register return orders into the Schengen Information System (SIS) to facilitate the enforcement of return decisions for non-EU nationals who do not have the right to stay in the EU.

In this regard:

• 1.According to the 2023 SIS report[2] by the EU Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), Member States introduced 321 549 SIS alerts on returns between 7 March 2023 and 31 December 2023, leading to 10 005 confirmed returns recorded in the SIS. However, Eurostat data[3] indicates that 484 000 third-country nationals (TCNs) were ordered to leave in 2023 and roughly 65 000 TCNs actually returned after receiving a return decision in the same period. How does the Commission assess this discrepancy between the SIS data and the Eurostat figures?
• 2.Does the Commission have information on whether all Member States are fully complying with their obligation to enter return orders into the SIS?
• 3.In how many cases does a Member State that has not itself issued the return order execute the return, rather than transferring the individual back to the Member State that issued the return order?

Submitted: 14.3.2025

• [1] Regulation (EU) 2018/1860 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 November 2018 on the use of the Schengen Information System for the return of illegally staying third-country nationals, OJ L 312, 7.12.2018, p. 1, ELI: http://data.europa.eu/eli/reg/2018/1860/oj.
• [2] European Union Agency for the Operational Management of Large-Scale IT Systems in the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (eu-LISA), ‘SIS 2023 Statistics Report’, 13 May 2024, https://www.eulisa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/SIS%202023%20Annual%20Statistics%20-%20Report.pdf.
• [3] Eurostat, ‘Third-country nationals returned following an order to leave, by type of return, citizenship, country of destination, age and sex – quarterly data’, 17 March 2025, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/migr_eirtn1__custom_16030221/default/table?lang=en.