New SIS to track criminals and illegally-staying persons

How can we effectively find criminals and terrorists in a Union without internal border checks? How are we able to enforce our rules and decisions on migrants that are obliged to return to their countries of origin, if we are not able to monitor persons that can easily abscond to another Member State? Efficient information-sharing systems for police officers, investigators, prosecutors and border authorities are crucial to this. This is what the reform of the Schengen Information System is all about. 

What is the Schengen Information System?

The Schengen Information System (SIS) has already been functioning for 12 years as a database of alerts on missing persons and stolen objects, as well as persons whose stay in the Schengen area was banned. Last year alone, it was used more than 5.1 billion times by authorities in 30 European countries, who shared information about people, objects or documents to be tracked down and how to act if they captured them.  

Compulsory data sharing on criminals

However, what has been missing to date is a compulsory use of the system.

In 2017, alerts were created in the system for about half a million criminals convicted or prosecuted in EU Member States, so that they could not try to enter another EU country.

With the current reform, the number of these alerts, ensuring security all around the EU, will grow even higher. Entering an alert about bans and granting a residence permit will become an automatic component of migration officers’ work.

As access to the system has now also been granted to the European Border and Coast Guard and the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) central unit, people with a criminal history in the EU will not be able to re-enter any of the Member States.

Easier capturing of criminals

The reform will also make search operations for unknown perpetrators of crime more efficient. Fingerprints or palm prints discovered during investigations in one country will be uploaded to the system so that escaping criminals can be identified by police all around the EU.

These and other already-stored criminal records will now be easily accessible to Europol, which will be able to coordinate European actions in cases of cross-border crime.

Better management of migration

The system will now contribute to the management of migration, which, if it is to be successful, must be based on fast and effective returns of those who arrive in the EU without the right for international protection.

When a migration office in one state issues a decision to return an illegally-staying person to his or her home country, the Schengen Information System will be immediately updated with the decision. That will make the potential absconding of these persons to another country useless. Next to that we can monitor whether the person that has the obligation to leave the EU has actually left.

Fighting child abuse

The reform does not forget about the most vulnerable: children at risk of being abused by those closest to them, or even sold to traffickers. Both police and border guards will have the right to take a child travelling from one state to another into protective custody if they have been notified about the child’s abuse via the system.

The improved Schengen Information System addresses the concerns of 38% of our citizens, who list migration as the main issue the EU has to face, as well as 29% of Europeans who believed security related to terrorist threats is something we must focus on. The introduction of new security and migration management tools with this reform highlights that the EPP Group, which stood behind the fast negotiations on the new system, listens to people’s concerns and acts on its promises.