UK v. Council (participation of the UK in the development of the Schengen acquis)

The United Kingdom applied to the Court for annulment, submitting on the contrary, as its main plea, that Decision 2008/633/JHA (access of the Visa Information System by national authorities and Europol for the purposes of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist offences and of other serious criminal offences) was not a measure building on the Schengen acquis, but a police cooperation measure in which therefore it should have been permitted to take part.

The United Kingdom submits in the alternative that even supposing that it does constitute a development of the Schengen acquis, the legal base did not fall within the area of this acquis covering short-stay visas and that that did not justify its exclusion from that measure. Consequently, it demanded direct and full access to the VIS.

The Court rejected the action of the United Kingdom, considering, in substance, that an act may have "police cooperation" as its legal base, whilst constituting a development of the Schengen acquis. In this respect, it emphasised that the question whether a measure constitutes a development of the Schengen acquis is separate from that of the legal base on which that development must be founded.