L 23/62 Official Journal of the European Union 27.1.2010 COMMISSION DECISION of 30 November 2009 determining the first regions for the start of operations of the Visa Information System (VIS) (notified under document C(2009) 8542) (Only the Bulgarian, Czech, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Italian, Latvian, Lithuanian, Maltese, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish and Swedish texts are authentic) (2010/49/EC) THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES, Having regard to the Treaty establishing the European Community, Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 9 July 2008 concerning the Visa Information System (VIS) and the exchange of data between Member States on short-stay visas (VIS Regulation) ('), and in particular Article 48(4) thereof, Whereas: Article 48 of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 provides for a progressive implementation of the VIS operations. Accordingly, it is necessary to determine the first regions where the data to be processed in the VIS, including photographs and fingerprint data, shall be collected and transmitted to the VIS for all visa appli- cations in the region concerned, during the first phases of the progressive implementation. Article 48(4) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 provides for the determination of these regions based on the following criteria: the risk of illegal immigration, threats to the internal security of the Member States and the feasibility of collecting biometrics from all locations in this region. The Commission has made an assessment for the different regions as defined in 2005 by the Member States’ experts for the progressive implementation of the VIS, and taking into account, notably for the first criterion, elements such as the average visa refusal and entry refusal rates for each of the regions concerned, and, for the third criterion, the fact that consular presence or representation should be increased in certain regions in order to efficiently implement the VIS in these regions. () O] L 218, 13.8.2008, p. 60. S According to this assessment, the first region where the collection and transmission of visa data to the VIS should start for all visa applications should be North Africa. The second region where the collection and transmission of visa data to the VIS should start for all visa appli- cations should be the Near East, with the exception of the occupied Palestinian territory due to the serious technical difficulties that might be encountered in the equipping of the consular posts or offices concerned. At a later stage a decision should be adopted concerning the start of operations of the VIS in this territory. The third region where the collection and transmission of visa data to the VIS should start for all visa applications should be the Gulf Region. To avoid a gap when fighting illegal immigration and protecting internal security, the Schengen border crossing points should be designated as a separate region for the roll-out in order to cover the visa appli- cations lodged at the external borders. Member States should endeavour to start collecting and transmitting the data to the VIS at the external border crossing points as soon as possible in order to avoid that the roll-out in the regions is circumvented by third country nationals of these regions, lodging their applications at the external borders. The starting date of the operations in each of these regions is to be determined by the Commission pursuant to Article 48(1) and (3) of Regulation (EC) No 767/2008. For the determination of the further regions, subsequent decisions should be taken at a later stage on the basis of an additional and up-dated assessment of these other regions in accordance with the relevant criteria and the experience with the implementation in the first regions defined by this Decision.