On Wednesday 8 November, the member state ambassadors to the EU (Coreper) in turn adopted their mandate for negotiation on the initiatives to strengthen the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the face of terrorist threats. More specifically, they approved three regulation proposals on the use of SIS in the context of judicial and police cooperation, of external border checks, and in the area of decisions taken for the return of illegally staying third-country nationals.
The European Parliament's civil liberties committee adopted its position on these three regulations on Monday 6 November (see EUROPE 11898).
The draft regulations address "potential gaps and introduce several changes to the current system", a Council press release states. The draft regulations particularly introduce further categories of alerts in the system – for example, alerts issued for the purposes of investigative checks, an intermediate step between discreet checks and arrests, which allow people to be questioned, the Council writes; - alerts on the subject of unknown suspects or wanted persons, which provide for the introduction into SIS of digital fingerprints or palm prints discovered at the scenes of serious crimes or terrorist offences which are considered as highly likely to belong to a perpetrator; - preventive alerts for children at risk of abduction, in particular parental abduction, as well as vulnerable people who need to be prevented from travelling for their own protection (for example, where travel might lead to the risk of forced marriage, female genital mutilation or trafficking of human beings); - alerts for the purpose of return, which require the introduction of an alert in relation to return decisions issued to illegally staying third-country nationals, thus improving exchange of information in relation to return decisions. The texts that are the subject of an agreement in principle at the Council also expand the list of objects for which alerts can be issued, to include, among others, false documents and banknotes, as well as identifiable IT equipment. In addition, the introduction of alerts in the SIS as regards entry bans for third-country nationals becomes compulsory.
The draft regulations introduce the possibility of using facial images for identification purposes – in particular to ensure consistency in border control procedures. They also allow for the inclusion of a DNA profile to facilitate the identification of missing people in cases where fingerprint data, photographs or facial images are not available.
With these new rules, Europol will be able to access all categories of data in the SIS. In addition, member states should share information on terrorism-related activity with Europol when introducing an alert in SIS, as well as positive results and related information. The new European Border and Coast Guard Agency will also have access to the alert categories in SIS. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)