designated authoritiesmeans authorities which are responsible for the prevention, detection or investigation of terrorist offences or of other serious criminal offences and designated by the Member States pursuant to Article 3.
Europolmeans the European Police Office as established by the Convention of 26 July 1995 on the Establishment of a European Police Office (the Europol Convention);
serious criminal offencesmeans the forms of crime which correspond or are equivalent to those referred to in Article 2(2) of Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA;
terrorist offencesmeans the offences under national law which correspond or are equivalent to the offences in Articles 1 to 4 of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA of 13 June 2002 on combating terrorism;
Visa Information System (VIS)means the Visa Information System as established by Decision 2004/512/EC;