Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2002-12-16-Speech-1-069"
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"en.20021216.6.1-069"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, I wish first of all to congratulate the rapporteur, Carlos Coelho, on his excellent report, which, in clear and concise terms, contributes to improving the Council’s draft initiatives on the new functions of the Schengen Information System.
In fact, I can even add that some of the amendments proposed by the rapporteur are already included in the texts of the Council working group studying these initiatives. The draft initiatives in question will be discussed for the first time at the Justice and Home Affairs Council of 19 December, in the Joint Committee with Iceland and Norway, and the Commission is willing to support several of the concerns expressed by the rapporteur and which, I am sure, Parliament’s plenary will support.
In particular, I agree with the opinion on the need to limit Europol’s access to the categories of data recorded under Articles 95, 99 and 100 of the Schengen Convention and to ensure that the data in question will be neither copied nor downloaded. This access must not transform the SIS into a research tool and nor must it be in any way disproportionate to the reasons for such access being granted. In my opinion, this type of access can be particularly useful in giving Europol the opportunity to request additional information from the Member States in specific cases they are investigating, in the context of the fight against terrorism, for example. This is, as a matter of fact, the type of information that Europol is already authorised to request and obtain directly from Member States.
With regard to data protection, the Commission believes that the new provisions concerning the SIS, which falls partially within the sphere of Community competence, particularly with regard to Article 96, must be studied in light of their compatibility not only with the Council of Europe’s 1981 Convention on data protection, but also with the content of Directive 45/96/EC. Similarly, the study of the proportionality of certain measures can be facilitated through consultation with the competent authorities, whether they are acting under the third or the first pillar.
In this regard, we particularly appreciate the opinion of the Joint Supervisory Authority on these draft initiatives, with which we largely agree, including the reference to the fact that extended access must be granted to the authorities responsible for issuing residence permits, to the data of Article 100 of the security information system where identity documents are concerned; safeguards must be in place, however, to ensure that such access will not infringe the rights of citizens whose identity documents have been stolen. I believe that this matter, raised by the rapporteur and which is extremely significant, cannot be resolved solely by developing new technical solutions or by introducing new functions, as Mr Coelho said, for SIS-II, which, in principle, will become operational in 2006. This matter must be addressed now and must above all be accompanied by the necessary information to the citizens about the existence of the Schengen Information System and on the conditions governing its use, including the need to delete some details in the event that documents are stolen or lost.
As to Schengen Information System-II, as the rapporteur said, the Commission was given the task of developing the new generation SIS in January 2002 and we anticipated a global approach to its functions in the communication that we presented to the Council and to Parliament on 18 December 2001. To put it succinctly, I should like to say to the House that the timetable for the preparation of SIS-II has so far been met and that the feasibility study is due to be concluded in March 2003. This will enable us better to help candidate countries prepare for the future elimination of internal borders, which can only take place when SIS-II becomes operational. A report by the Commission services is now being finalised, describing in detail the current state of play of this study, which will be conveyed to the European Parliament and to the Council at the beginning of next year."@en1
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