SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM: SECOND GENERATION
(SIS II) (5709/06, 5710/06)
Letter from the Chairman to Joan Ryan
MP, Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, Home Office
Sub-Committee F (Home Affairs) of the House
of Lords Committee on the European Union considered the revised
proposals at a meeting on 13 December 2006.
The Committee is aware that the revised texts
were agreed in principle by the Justice and Home Affairs Council
on 4-5 December. As you know, we are in the process of completing
an inquiry on the second generation Schengen Information System
(SIS II) which will seek to make recommendations that would be
useful as regards the interpretation and application of the SIS
II provisions, including points relevant to the specific position
of the UK. We are therefore retaining these documents under scrutiny,
but given that our scrutiny will not affect the adoption of the
legislative measures, we are happy for a Minister to agree to
the proposals being adopted in the Council, in reliance on paragraph
3(b) of the Scrutiny Reserve.
The previous drafts (documents 5709/06 + Rev
1, Rev 3, Rev 6, Rev 8 and 5710/06 + Rev 2, Rev 4) are cleared
from scrutiny as they have been superseded.
14 December 2006
Letter from Joan Ryan MP to the Chairman
During the course of the Committee's inquiry
into the Second Generation Schengen Information System (SIS II)
I provided you with information on SISone4all, a technical solution
which will allow nine of the new Member States who joined the
European Union in May 2004 to connect temporarily to the Schengen
Information System I+ (SIS I+) currently in use by other member
states. As you are aware from my letter of 14 December, the December
Justice and Home Affairs Council gave the go-ahead for SISone4all
to proceed. The UK currently has no intention of joining SISone4all,
and we negotiated the terms of the Council Conclusions relating
to financing the project so as to exempt the UK from future additional
costs associated with implementing SISone4all. This letter updates
you on progress on SISone4all and the impact on SIS II, and on
two legislative measures which we expect to be adopted shortly
at a forthcoming Council.
The December Council conclusions noted that
some delay to SIS II would be caused by the implementation of
SISone4all, and invited the European Commission to present by
February 2007 a revised timetable for SIS II which takes into
account the consequences of the implementation of the SISone4all
project.
The Commission presented this revised SIS II
schedule in January 2007. The overall impact of the implementation
of SISone4all is to push back the SIS II operational date for
Member States using the SIS I+ from June 2008 to December 2008.
The Government regrets the impact on SIS II, and has consistently
underlined the need for rigorous project management of SISone4all
to minimise any delays. However, this delay will not impact on
our domestic SIS II programme.
The December Council Conclusions also noted
that amendments would need to be made to the financial regulation
governing the budgetary aspects of SISNET, which is the communication
infrastructure for SIS I+. This is necessary to account for the
financial implications for all States participating in the SIS
I+ so as to cover the extra costs flowing from the extension of
the network. A Council Decision which will allow for these amendments
to the financial regulation has been drawn up, and a copy is enclosed
at Annex A (not printed) (document number 6606/07). We expect
this document to be adopted at a forthcoming Council. It should
be noted that this document specifically states that the United
Kingdom should not contribute to additional costs entailed by
the SISone4all project.
The second legislative measure will allow the
Deputy Secretary-General of the Council of the European Union
to act as representative of the Member States in a tendering process
to allow for a new contract to be drawn up for the SISNET. This
is necessary as the current contract will end on 13 November 2008,
but those member states currently connected to the SIS I+ will
now be using the system until migration to SIS II. A copy of this
document is attached at Annex B (not printed) (6605/07).
I hope the Committee finds this information
useful.
5 March 2007
| 
