Strasbourg, 25/10/2006 (Agence Europe) - In Strasbourg on Wednesday, MEPs adopted, by a large majority, a package of three proposals amending Commission projects for the second generation Schengen information system (SIS II) which will allow new Member States to join the Schengen area as soon as possible. In backing the three reports by Carlos Coelho (EPP-ED, Portugal) on the legislative basis for SIS II, MEPs, while supporting the Commission's proposals, introduced certain amendments to improve the security and personal data protection standards of the system. Most of the compromise amendments had been negotiated on 26 September at an informal trilogue with the Commission and the Council. However, MEPs refused to introduce a change called for in Council by Germany, which would allow national intelligence services to access information held by SIS II. The attitude that Germany adopts at the December JHA Council will have a direct bearing on the final adoption of SIS II. If Berlin sticks to its position, there will have to be a second reading in the EP. The current SIS links the authorities (police, gendarmerie, justice and Customs) of the fifteen Schengen area Member States (the EU15, apart from the United Kingdom and Ireland, but including Norway and Iceland). The implementation of the second generation of SIS is a sine qua non of the new Member States' and Switzerland's joining an area of security with no internal borders. At the SIS in Strasbourg, almost 15 million pieces of data are recorded (90% deal with objects, mainly stolen, and 10% with people). Some 800,000 people - undesirables or being sought by police - are recorded.
Use of biometrics and interlinking of reports: these are two new elements in SIS II that will be introduced to improve the reliability and enhance the capacities of the system. Photographs and fingerprints can only be entered following a special quality check to ascertain that a minimum data quality standard has been achieved. A search with biometrics should be excluded at the initial stage of the system and will be possible only when it is technically viable. The Parliament will have to be consulted by the European Commission before the implementation of this biometric search. It will also be possible to link, for example, the report of a stolen car with the report of a person wanted for arrest. The regulation says, however, that a Member State is to create a link between reports only when there is a clear operation al need.
Management Authority: a management authority, funded from the Community budget, will manage the operation of the SIS II central data base. Monitoring of personal data processing will be the responsibility of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS). Activities will be subject to a high level audit at least every four years. The processing of data at national level will also be subject to audits, for which national supervisory authorities will be responsible, in cooperation with the EDPS so as to ensure coordinated supervision. Every Member State will be responsible for setting up and maintaining a national data system that can communicate with the central SIS II and must designate an authority for that purpose. It will also have to take the necessary steps to protect personal data.
Reactions: “It is a good outcome both for Europe, because it increases personal data security and protection, and also for the new Member States because it will allow their citizens to become fully fledged European citizens,” said the rapporteur in the debate. He nonetheless felt that “the proposal to give intelligence services access to the SIS II has no sense because we cannot increase the requirements with regard to personal data or grant access to Member States' bodies that are not subject to data protection procedures”. Finnish minister Paula Lehtomäkiki, speaking for the Presidency of the Council said she hoped to reach a solution with Parliament on first reading. Commissioner Franco Frattini warned that further delays would have a negative impact on the new SIS II programme set out at the last JHA Council, which scheduled the implementation of the new system for June 2008 (see EUROPE 9280).
There were many MEPs who made the case for rapid enlargement of the Schengen Area. “We understand the difficulties of our colleagues in Eastern Europe when it comes to explaining to their citizens why they do not have freedom of movement in Europe. It is unacceptable. That is why we wanted an agreement at first reading in order to avoid delaying free movement for all European citizens”, Martine Roure (PES, France) said. Mihael Brejc (EPP, Slovenia) spoke of the “enormous effort” made by the new Member States to come into line with the SIS II accession criteria. Magda Kósáné Kovács (PES, Hungary) noted that the situation did not make her jump for joy as, she pointed out, “we are moving towards a multi-speed accession. This is shocking from the ethical or moral points of view”. Swedish Green member Karl Schlyter was highly critical of the fact that intelligence services had the possibility of consulting SIS II biometric information. “It means the data protection principle is collapsing. The Council must withdraw this point”, he asserted. Finally, Italian GUE member Giusto Gatanja slammed an instrument that, in his view, is a cover-up for a “new form of social control”. (bc)