At an informal meeting which took place on 15 and 16 January, the EU Ministers of Justice and Home debated the issue of development of the second-generation Schengen Information System. The Cezch Minister of the Interior, Ivan Langer, has said "We have just addressed the present situation in the development of SIS II with all EU and Schengen Ministers and we have agreed that this project is, in fact, in a crisis that needs to be solved immediately." Moreover, he said "it may be that SIS II won't work."
Presently, the Schengen area includes all EU Member States with the exception of the UK and Ireland, whilst Romania and Bulgaria are set to join in 2011. The Schengen Information System (SIS) has been in operation since 1995. The SIS was created as a compensatory measure for the opening of the borders but its purpose has been gradually changed. SIS is a computer database for the collection and exchange of information relating to immigration, policing and criminal law for the purposes of law enforcement and immigration control. The SIS presently stores only “alphanumeric” data. The system contains information on individuals and lost and stolen objects that can be exchange by the relevant authorities of the Schengen Member States. Member States provide information to the system through national networks (N-SIS) connected to a central system (C-SIS) which is supplemented by a network known as SIRENE (Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry).
The UK has not signed the Schengen Convention but it has requested to participate in certain aspects of the Schengen Acquis. In 2000, the Council approved the UK’s application to participate in certain aspects of the Schengen Acquis, including the Schengen Information System (SIS). However, the UK participates in the SIS, as regards criminal law and policing information, but not the SIS immigration data.
In 2001, the Council entrusted the Commission with the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). Originally, the main purpose for the system update was to include the new EU’s Member States, since the central system (C-SIS) could not connect more than 18 countries. Obviously, the decision to create a Second Generation of the SIS also took account of the need to provide for further technical features such as the inclusion of biometric data, new types of alerts (introduction of the European Arrest Warrant) and to expand access to alerts by authorities at national or EU level.
SIS II will store a huge amount of sensitive personal data. It will store biometric data such as photographs and fingerprints.
The original plan was to implement SIS II in 2007 in parallel with the enlargement of the Schengen area to the EU’s new Member States. As abovementioned, in 2001, the Commission received the mandate to develop the new system which was scheduled to begin operating in March 2007. However, due to several delays, the Commission has asked for an extension of the mandate. A new timetable was announced, providing for SIS II to become operational by December 2008.
In the meantime, a more updated version of the SIS (SIS I+R) was developed in 2006.
SIS II was supposed to be in place in December 2007 but due to technical, legal and financial difficulties which lead to continual delays, this deadline was abandoned. SIS II has been experiencing huge technical problems, with computers in the member states unable to communicate with the EU's centralised database. Hence, in 2006, Portugal has presented a proposal establishing a temporary system, the so called “SIS one4all”, in order to include the new Member States. The SISone4ALL has been implemented and has enabled nine new Member States to be connected to the old SIS in December 2007.
The system must be tested, before it stars operating in order to assess whether SIS II meets all the technical and functional requirements as defined in the SIS II legal instruments. The “one-shoot migration” of the “SIS I + users to the SIS II environment” can only take place after the successful completion of all SIS II tests.
A new schedule for implementing the second generation of SIS was planned for September 2009. It was already postponed several times nevertheless there is no possibility for SIS II to become operational in September 2009. Ivan Langer has said “it is clear that we cannot abide by the general schedule for SIS II.” He referred to “errors” which “continue to cause deadlocks.”
Meeting informally in Prague, on 15 January,the EU Interior Ministers have debated the future of the Schengen Information System (SIS) II. Some Member States are already calling for the project to be abandoned. The European Commission is charged with overseeing the project. Obviously, the EU Member States are not pleased with the Commission’s delays. In fact, Maria Fekter, Austria Interior Minister, has said "we have no more confidence in the [European] Commission." Moreover, she said “From our point of view, the test phase (of the Schengen Information System II, SIS II) has failed … The technical experts couldn’t manage it.”
The EU ministers have set up a deadline, Ivan Langer has said “We must see whether this can be fixed. In May, either it will work, or the problems will be so serious that we will have to adopt an emergency plan.” Hence, the EU security database or will go ahead or will be scraped. According to Ivan Langer "The result will be: We dismantle all the problems, the SIS II works, and there is a fixed date when it's over. (…) Or, at the end of our presidency, the result will be that the problems are so serious that we have to follow the contingency plan.”
Obviously, abandoning SIS II would be very embarrassed to the European Commission. Therefore, the Commission does not want to bring the project to an end. According to Jacques Barrot “It is true that there is a slight delay, but we are going to set the calendar and we will stick to it.”
The EU has committed €68 million of the EU budget to this project. Since 2002, €28 million has already been wasted. Member States have also made considerable additional financial commitments to the project.
Although the UK does not have access to all the information on SIS II it makes a full contribution. In 2006, Mike Fitzpatrick has said to House of Lords European Union Committee that the UK pays 18% of the Commission’s costs in running the system. According to the House of Lords European Union Committee, the Home Office has estimated the cost to the United Kingdom of implementing SIS II around £39 million and around £4 million of annual operational costs for running the system in the UK. Whereas the UK has been able to participate in Schengen measures since 2000 it has never been part of the SIS network. However, the UK is expecting to start operating the Schengen Information System II in April 2010. The Home Office has recently estimated costs to HMG of the impact of UK connection to SIS II in relation to the European Arrest Warrant. It has estimated around £16,950,000 of average annual costs.
The Central Part of the SIS (C.SIS) is currently managed by France and located in Strasbourg on behalf of the other Member States. The Commission has originally proposed that it should itself be responsible for management of the SIS II system. But this idea was very unpopular among the Member States therefore it was decided that a Management Authority would be responsible for the operational management of the Central SIS II. However, the Commission is set to propose the establishment of a new agency that would manage the Schengen Information System and Visa Information System.
Last February, the Justice and Home Affairs Council reiterated “that the rapid entry into operation of SIS II remains the absolute priority.” The Council pointed out that the Commission despite all the problems believes that all the issues can be resolved without a major re-design of the SIS II application.
The Council has regretted that the set up date, September 2009, for migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II is no longer possible.
The EU Justice and Home Affairs ministers have decided to keep two options open: launch of the new SIS II database and a ‘plan B’, which would entail keeping the current SIS but adding what works in SIS II.
The Council set up its meeting on 4-5 June 2009 as a deadline to decide whether there should be a continuation of the current SIS II project or if the SIS II should be realised through the development of the SIS 1+ solution (SIS 1+ RE solution).
The ministers were supposed to decide whether or not to abandon SIS II, basing their decision on various criteria: the calendar for the entry into operation of SIS II and the calendar for the integration of the non-Schengen countries (Ireland, the United Kingdom, Cyprus, Bulgaria, Romania and Liechtenstein), the budget impact and contractual implications for the countries and the Commission as well as the technical merits of the project and possible legal impacts.
On 4 June, the Council adopted conclusions on “the further direction of SIS II.”
Notwithstanding the delay that has already built up, the Council has decided that the development of SIS II will continue on the basis of the current SIS II project. It has therefore decided to continue the tests aimed at modernising the Schengen Information System (SIS). However, the EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers have also decided to keep the SIS 1+ RE as “the contingency plan.” Hence, “in case tests demonstrate non-compliance with the milestone requirements” the existing SIS II would be stopped and the Commission should continue with the SIS II development on the basis of the SIS 1+ RE technical solution.
The impasse on the development of SIS II is raising doubts over the EU capacity to finalize cross border technical projects.