Facts about Schengen Information System (SIS)

1. What is Schengen Information System?

The Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 and its implementing Convention of 19 June 1990 (The Schengen Convention) abolished checks at the internal borders between contracting parties (all Member States of EU, with the exception of Great Britain and Ireland, plus Norway and Iceland). By this an area for the free movement of persons and for facilitation of the transport and movement of goods and the principle of a border control upon entry into a single Schengen territory was established.

Therefore, to maintain a satisfactory level of public policy and public security it was considered necessary, among other measures (strengthening police and judicial cooperation, harmonising visa and asylum policies), to create the Schengen Information System (SIS).

SIS consists of a national section in each of the contracting parties and a technical support function in Strassbourg. For the purpose of border checks and other police and customs checks, including the ones carried out within the country, the technical support function via on-line transmission ensures that the data files of the national sections contain identical information. SIS contains only specified categories of data supplied through national section of the contracting party, when determined weather information is of enough importance to warrant entry in SIS and is in compliance with above mentioned purpose. Therefore each contracting party designates an authority which carries central responsibility for its national section of the SIS, named SIRENE (Supplementary Information Request at the National Entry). In the Republic of Slovenia this responsibility is vested in the Police.

This joint system creates a link between all the contracting parties and gives end-users (police, customs, consulates and other authorities competent to process data for the purposes of issuing visas, the administration of legislation on aliens and issuing vehicle registration certificates) access to information required for the performance of their duties, entered in the SIS by other contracting states.

The SIS is a data file shared by all member states in the Schengen area and centralizes two broad categories of information on, firstly, wanted or missing persons and persons under surveillance (discreet surveillance) and, secondly, stolen or missing vehicles and objects (identity papers, weapons and money).

Data relating to persons is considered to be personal data and are carefully safeguarded. In the framework of SIS besides the Schengen Convention and the Personal data protection act also the provisions of the Council of Europe Convention for the protection of individuals with regard to automatic processing of personal data must be considered.

2. Data Stored in SIS

The Schengen Convention limits the personal data that may be collected to data on:

• persons wanted for arrest for extradition purposes (Article 95 of the Schengen Convention),
• persons, not nationals of a member state, on whom an alert has been issued for the purposes of refusing entry into Schengen territory (Article 96 of the Schengen Convention),
• missing persons or persons who need to be placed under protection, in particular minors (Article 97 of the Schengen Convention),
• witnesses or persons summoned to appear before the judicial authorities in connection with criminal proceedings or are to be served with a criminal judgment or a custodial sentence (Article 98 of the Schengen Convention),
• persons under discreet surveillance or specific checks (Article 99 of the Schengen Convention).

The personal data collected shall be no more than the following:

• surname and forenames, any aliases possibly entered separately;
• any specific objective and physical characteristics not subject to change;
• first letter of second forename;
• date and place of birth;
• sex;
• nationality;
• whether the persons concerned are armed;
• whether the persons concerned are violent;
• reason for the alert;
• action to be taken.

Besides the above mentioned personal data, SIS assembles data on:

• vehicles under discreet surveillance or specific checks (Article 99 of the Schengen Convention),
• objects sought for purposes of seizure or use as evidence in criminal proceedings (Article 100 of the Schengen Convention).

Other personal data, in particular data on racial background, political, religious and other beliefs, health status and sexual life (sensitive personal data) are not permitted.

3. Who can use the data from SIS?

Personal data, as well as data on objects and vehicles, may be used by authorized persons only in accordance with the purpose laid down by the Schengen Convention.

Data in SIS are supplied by each of the contracting parties and access to entered data is conferred on police for performing border checks on external borders, as well as on other national authorities, defined by the Schengen Convention (e.g. embassies in the process of issuing visas, administrative units in the process of issuing residence permits).

The right to access to data saved in the SIS is therefore reserved exclusively to the  authorities responsible for:

• border checks,
• other concretely determined police and customs checks carried out within the country, and the coordination of such checks and
• to a certain extent also to the national judicial authorities responsible for criminal proceedings (e.g. Prosecution).

To data concerning refusal of entry issued against aliens in accordance with Article 96 and data concerning the documents from the Article 100 (3)(d) and (e) of the Schengen Convention, that have been stolen, misappropriated or lost (passports, identity cards, driving licenses), access may be exercised also by:

• the authorities responsible for issuing visas,
• the central authorities responsible for examining visa applications,
• the authorities responsible for issuing residence permits and
• the authorities responsible for the administration of legislation on aliens.

In addition, right to access to data on stolen, misappropriated or lost vehicles (Article 100 (3)(a) and (b) of the Schengen Convention) and data on stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated registration certificates for vehicles and vehicle number plates is also given to services in the member states responsible for issuing registration certificates for vehicles, as referred to in Council Directive 1999/37/EC of 29 April 1999 on the registration documents for vehicles.

A list of competent authorities which are authorized to access the data contained in the SIS is determined by the contracting state and is sent to the executive committee, founded for the purposes of performing the Schengen Convention.

4. Who is responsible for the protection and security of personal data in SIS?

The technical support function, based in Strasbourg, by providing information on-line serves to ensure that all the national systems are essentially identical. The secured lines enabling the on-line transmission of encoded data are therefore the basis of the SIS. These lines are highly protected. Data files are secured and each contracting party has its national copy.
   
A joint supervisory authority is responsible for supervising the technical support function of the SIS with regard to data protection, while the supervision of the national data file is vested in the national supervisory authority. Information Commissioner is the competent authority in Slovenia.


You can also see the Information Commissioner's publication on Schengen Information System here.