On Tuesday 7 March, the European Commission welcomed the entry into force of the new Schengen Information System (SIS), which is the “largest information sharing system for security and border management”, according to a statement. This will be accompanied by new alerts, such as new alerts for investigative checks to gather information on persons suspected of serious crime or terrorism, or alerts on return decisions taken in Member States against illegal immigrants.
Revised in 2018 (see EUROPE 12140/26), the SIS provides information on wanted and missing persons, third-country nationals who do not have the right to reside legally in the EU and lost or stolen objects. As soon as this is possible (see related article), it will become interoperable with other European databases such as the Entry/Exit System (EES) and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS).
In particular, the new SIS will be able to include new categories of alerts, biometric data such as palm prints, fingerprints and DNA data for missing persons, as well as additional tools to fight crime and terrorism.
In order to combat these phenomena, new alerts on ‘unknown wanted persons’, which will only contain fingerprints of unknown perpetrators found at the scene of terrorist offences or serious criminal acts, can also be created. To protect missing and vulnerable persons, such as children at risk of being abducted for exploitation, it will be possible for national authorities to issue preventive alerts.
On irregular migration, the SIS will now also include return decisions issued by Member States organising mutual recognition of these decisions.
“Member States will be required to create an alert in SIS each time they issue a return decision on a third-country national with no legal right to stay in the EU, allowing them to actively follow up whether the returnee effectively leaves the EU territory”, the Commission explains. (Original version in French by Solenn Paulic)