Of particular interest to the Commission in this context are the
databases for the planned Visa Information System (VIS), the
Schengen Information System (SIS) and EURODAC.
VIS
The VIS is intended to be a system for the exchange of visa data
between Member States and thus primarily an instrument to support
the common visa policy. It will also facilitate checks at the
external borders and within the Member States, assisting the
exchange of data between Member States on applications and on the
decisions in respect of those applications.
Following a recently adopted proposal on accessing the VIS,
Member States authorities responsible for internal security and
Europol will be entitled to consult the database for the purposes
of the prevention, detection and investigation of terrorist
offences and the types of crime and offences in respect of which
Europol is competent to act.
SIS and SIS II
SIS is the system that currently enables competent authorities
to obtain information regarding certain categories of persons and
property in relation to the free movement of people and police
cooperation. SIS II will replace the current intergovernmental
Schengen Information System with EU legislation and enable the
enlargement of the Schengen area to the new Member States.
It works by allowing authorities, through an automatic query
procedure, to obtain information related to alerts on persons and
objects, and is used, in particular, for police and judicial
cooperation in criminal matters, as well as for the control of
persons at the external borders or on national territories and for
the issuance of visas and residence permits.
The SIS has been operational since March 1995 and now includes
13 EU Member States plus Norway and Iceland. UK and Ireland do not
yet participate in the SIS but will do so in the future. However,
the involvement of these countries will be limited to the exchange
of information supporting police and judicial cooperation in
criminal matters
SIS II will allow for the integration of new Member States into
the system, and allow all members of the Schengen states to benefit
from improvements in technology, bringing about, says the
Commission, more security and more efficiency.
EURODAC
Since 15th January 2003, the fingerprints of anyone over the age
of 14 who applies for asylum in the EU (except Denmark, for the
time being), in Norway and in Iceland have been stored in a
database called EURODAC. EURODAC was created in the context of the
development of an asylum policy common to all the Member States of
the European Union.
Agreements have been recently signed with Denmark and
Switzerland in order to make EURODAC applicable to those states as
well.
EURODAC aims at facilitating the so-called Dublin II Regulation,
which determines the Member State responsible for examining an
asylum application. This Regulation establishes a series of
criteria that allocate responsibility for examining an asylum
application to the Member State that permitted the applicant to
enter or to reside. That Member State is responsible for examining
the application according to its national law and is obliged to
take back its applicants who are irregularly in another Member
State.
Access to the system is restricted to the sole purposes stated
in the EURODAC Regulation. It does not contain details such as the
name of a person because it relies only on biometric comparison and
each participating state ensures that the national supervisory
authority on data protection monitors independently the lawfulness
of the processing of the data.
EURODAC is the first common Automated Fingerprint Identification
System (AFIS) within the European Union.
The new Commission measures
Vice-President Franco Frattini, Commissioner responsible for
Justice, Freedom and Security, said yesterday: "It is essential in
the fight against terrorism and organised crime for the relevant
services of the Member States and relevant bodies of the European
Union, such as Europol, to have the fullest and most up-to-date
information if they are to perform their tasks properly and
effectively."
The new proposals include a Council Decision that will set out
how and when Europol and the security agencies of Member States
will be entitled to access the VIS. Basically, they will be given
guaranteed access to VIS in the course of their duties in relation
to the prevention, detection and investigation of criminal
offences, including terrorist acts and threats, subject to strict
compliance with the rules governing the protection of personal
data.
The Commission has also adopted a communication on the
medium-and long-term development of the VIS, the SIS and
EURODAC.
The Commission says this tackles the technical issues involved
in interoperability and synergies among systems (either already in
operation or under development) and goes on to show how these
systems could, in addition to their existing roles, more
effectively underpin the policies linked to the free movement of
persons and contribute to the fight against terrorism and organised
crime.
The communication also looks into the possibility of taking
forward other initiatives, for example the establishment of a
system for monitoring entry and exit movements and a system making
it easier for frequent travellers to cross external borders, or the
creation of a European criminal Automated Fingerprints
Identification System (AFIS).
According to the Commission, the communication does not prejudge
the outcome of an essential in-depth debate on the proposals, which
will have to balance the need for the measures against the
protection of fundamental rights (with special reference to the
protection of personal data), as embodied in the European
Convention on Human Rights and the EU Charter of Fundamental
Rights.
