Riga, 30/01/2015 (Agence Europe) - The European Commission adopted new rules upgrading the Schengen Information System (SIS) on Thursday 29 January. These new rules will come into force immmediately.
On the day that home affairs ministers were discussing the EU response to terrorism in Riga, Latvia, these new rules (which were not connected with this meeting) will bring technical level improvements to the SIS and allow the member states to enter more information, for example, informing their counterparts that a particular individual suspected of travelling abroad for training with terrorist organisations has had his/her identity papers confiscated.
The new technical measures will speed up and improve information exchange among law enforcement authorities, state security services and border guards throughout the 28 Schengen states. They will also contribute to more effective controls at the external borders, with law enforcement officers able to consult a much fuller SIS database.
For the moment, member states may, under the Schengen borders code, carry out more detailed checks on certain individuals entering the EU and verify their data in the SIS database. Checks of this sort are not, however, compulsory or systematic - a situation EU home affairs ministers would like to see rectified. On Thursday 29 January, they restated this objective, opting for legislative amendment of the Schengen borders code if simple interpretation of current rules proves insufficient (see EUROPE 11242). (SP)