Brussels, 26/08/2008 (Agence Europe) - Since 14 August, the police, border guards and other services of the Swiss Confederation have been able to access the Schengen Information System (SIS), which provides a list of all individuals wanted by the police or denied entry to a member state, and goods, such as motor cars or weapons, stolen in 25 European countries. The Federal Police Office says SIS will provide the police, border guards and other security forces with a further arm in the fight against cross-border crime. Switzerland's involvement in the SIS is currently provisional and will only become permanent after it has been assessed by European experts. This move is a further step along the way towards Switzerland's accession to the Schengen Area, due in December of this year (see EUROPE 9673).
The SIRENE offices are responsible for managing, coordinating and handling all incoming and outgoing searches in the SIS. Each of the 24 members of the Schengen Area has such an office. If a request turns up something useful, the police officers or border guards involved can receive detailed information on their request from the SIRENE office. Authorities which have access to the SIS can have information on their request within a few minutes, with the service operating 24 hours a day. In July, the SIS databank contained over 27 million entries, 26 million of which related to items: weapons, vehicles, numbered bank notes, and passports or identity papers stolen to create false identities. It is expected that, in all, around 20,000 requests will be made daily by Swiss authorities to the SIS. Switzerland has already put 1,200 arrest warrants for persons and 21,000 bans on entering the country into the system. It has also put in details of 280,000 items, according to swissinfo. The Federal Police Office believes that entries made by Switzerland could lead to some 3,000 positive searches made by other Schengen Area member states. It is expected, too, that the number of positive enquiries by Switzerland on cases abroad will be of the same order. Data protection rights are guaranteed by the SIS (minimum information, restricted use, erasure). Switzerland can only become a full member of the Schengen Area if SIS is working properly. It is for this reason that Switzerland's joining the system has to be assessed in September by experts from the EU countries. The Council of the EU will, thereafter, set a date for Switzerland's to become a full member of the open borders area.
The Schengen/Dublin Agreements on mutual judicial and asylum assistance were ratified by the EU in February 2008, and came into force on 1 March. This has meant that Switzerland has been subject to an assessment procedure by the EU. Of the total number of five, three assessments have been carried out - on data protection, police cooperation and visas. The last two relate to airports and the SIS. With regard to airports, the introduction of controls on persons under Schengen standards will be delayed by a few months. The new regime will come into effect on 29 March 2009 at the same time as the change in flight timetables. With regard to the SIS, the aim is to link up to the transitional option “SISone4all” from the start of operational cooperation, then to move towards SIS II towards the end of next year. Since the Dublin/Schengen Agreements were signed on 26 October 2004, 52 new legal acts relating to Schengen have been notified to Switzerland. Several of these have just been approved by the Parliament or are in the process of approval: the introduction of biometric information on passports, the Schengen border code, the SIS and the involvement of the European Border Agency FRONTEX and “Rabit” (the Rapid Border Intervention Team), the framework decision on simplifying the exchange of information and intelligence among law enforcement authorities of EU member states (“Swedish initiative”) and the External Borders Fund, which is due for debate in 2009. (B.C./transl.rt)