Luxemburg, 02/06/2006 (Agence Europe) - On Friday, European Interior Ministers reached a compromise on amending the police database for the Schengen area to allow the new Member States to join at the end of 2007, said Austrian Interior Minister Liese Prokop, speaking as President of the Council. “It only remains for us to maintain the political and technical rhythm to meet the deadline set,” said Commissioner Franco Frattini. The members of the Schengen area (the 15 “old” Member States, apart from the United Kingdom and Ireland, but including Norway and Iceland) removed internal border controls in 1995 and created the Schengen Information System, a computer system linking police, justice and Customs authorities in these countries. The implementation of the second generation SIS (SIS II) was a sine qua non of the inclusion of the new Member States in this security area without internal borders. SIS did not have the capacity to include the ten new states which joined the EU in 2004, plus Switzerland, which joined the Schengen area last year. The main difficulty for Ministers in finding a compromise on the text of SIS II was the choice of legal basis. Many States wanted SIS II to be used only to guarantee the security of the external borders of the Schengen area, and not the internal. “We took a huge step forward in reaching a political agreement on this text,” said Mr Frattini at a press conference. SIS II will be used principally to strengthen the identification system thanks to a store of biometric data (photographs and finger prints). The European Parliament wanted above all to ensure that SIS II did not violate legislation on personal data protection. The Council conceded on this point, but would not allow the exclusion of biometric data (finger prints and digital photos) in the system. Two years after the inclusion of biometric data in SIS II, an assessment of their usefulness will be carried out. Initially scheduled for April 2007, the implementation of SIS II is unlikely to be before October. The 25 EU countries have to be ready for the system to be put in place. Eight new Member States are behind schedule on the technical installation. The Schengen Information System (SIS), installed in Strasbourg, contains some 13 million descriptions, 90% of which are of stolen goods. Some 800,000 persons wanted by the police also feature. Ministers hope that MEPs will accept this compromise on the first reading of the text this summer.