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Criminal Police Directorate
SIRENE
HISTORY
On 14 June 1985, the governments of Germany, France, Belgium,
the Netherlands and Luxembourg signed an agreement in Schengen (a city in Luxembourg)
called the Schengen Agreement, aimed at gradual lifting of border controls
along their common border.
The Schengen Agreement was first introduced as a declaration
of intent, defining the objectives that were determined by the signatory governments
in order to establish the regime of free movement. Several years later, on
19 June 1990, the declaration of intent culminated with the creation of complementary
regulations known as the Convention Implementing the Schengen Agreement of
1985, which was signed by the original signatory Member States of the Schengen
Agreement. This document included the establishment of an area of free movement
of persons, capital, goods and services.
The articles of the Convention include a set of important
principles among which the following should be highlighted:
- introduction of free movement of persons, both citizens
of the European Union and non-citizens, within the Schengen area;
- establishment of a new term >external border<, with the emphasis on the
conditions required for allowing entry to citizens of third countries;
- definition of the Schengen common policy on visas and introduction of
a standardised visa which is valid throughout the entire territory;
- as regards refugees, definition of a series of procedural rules and several
criteria which must be used when determining the country responsible for
processing a request for asylum whenever the asylum seeker has or has had connections
with more than one Member State;
- as regards police cooperation, the Convention makes use of a whole range
of special mechanisms such as discreet cross-border surveillance and pursuit
on the territories of other Member States;
- establishment of a computer system which is common to all Member States
and called the "Schengen Information System (SIS)" and
- finally, the establishment of a joint supervisory body, responsible for
ensuring the protection of persons in relation to automatic processing of
personal data.
SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM - SIS
In accordance with the Schengen Convention, the purpose of
the Schengen Information System is to maintain public order and security, inclusive
of state security on the territories of Member States (parties to the Convention)
and application of the provisions of this Convention related to the movement
of persons in these territories using information transmitted through this
system. The SIS contains only those categories of data which are supplied by
each of the contracting parties, as required for the purposes laid down in
Articles 95 to 100. The contracting party issuing an alert shall determine
whether the case is important enough to warrant entry of the alert in the Schengen
Information System.
Data categories comprise:
- persons for whom an alert has been issued as defined in
Articles 95, 96, 97, 98 and 99 and
- objects defined in Article 100 and vehicles defined in Article 99.
Only the following data for persons are indicated:
- surname and forename, any aliases possibly registered separately;
- any particular objective and permanent physical features;
- 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 report;
- action to be taken.
Categories of SIS alerts are as follows:
- Article 95 - data relating to persons wanted for arrest
for extradition purposes;
- Article 96 - data relating to aliens who are reported for the purposes
of being refused entry;
- Article 97 - Data relating to persons who have
disappeared or to persons who, in the interests of their own protection or
in order to prevent threats require temporary police protection at the request
of the competent authority or the competent judicial authority of the reporting
Party;
- Article 98 - Data relating to witnesses, persons summoned to appear
before the judicial authorities in connection with criminal proceedings in
order to account for acts for which they are being prosecuted, or persons
who are to be notified of a criminal judgment or of a summons to appear in
order to serve a custodial sentence;
- Article 99 - Data relating to persons or vehicles for the purposes of
discreet surveillance or specific checks
- Article 100 - Data relating to
objects sought for the purposes of seizure or of evidence in criminal proceedings.
If a contracting party considers that an alert in accordance
with Articles 95, 97 or 99 is incompatible with its national law, its international
obligations or essential national interests, it may subsequently flag the alert
in question - add in the data file of the national section of the Schengen
Information System a note to the effect that the action referred to will not
be taken in its territory in connection with the alert. Consultations must
be held in this connection with the other contracting parties. If the alerting
contracting party does not withdraw the alert, it will continue to apply in
full for the other contracting parties.
Access to data included in the Schengen Information System
and the right to search such data directly is reserved exclusively for the
authorities responsible for
- border checks;
- other police and customs checks carried
out within the country, and the co-ordination of such checks;
- in addition,
access to data included in accordance with Article 96 and the right to search
such data directly may be exercised by the authorities responsible for issuing
visas, the central authorities responsible for examining visa applications
and the authorities responsible for issuing residence permits and the administration
of aliens within the framework of the application of the provisions on the
movement of persons under this Convention. Access to data shall be governed
by the national law of each Contracting Party.
- organisations competent
for the registration of motor vehicles and issue of registration plates;
- competent judicial bodies of Member States and
- EUROPOL and EUROJUST.
NEW SIS FUNCTIONS
Due to the growth of organised crime and especially the threat
of terrorism, new functions have been proposed within the scope of the SIS
which apply to the following areas:
- access to the SIS by bodies and companies responsible for
issuing certificates of registration and registration plates for motor vehicles;
- access to the SIS by Europol and Eurojust;
- entry of forged passports into the SIS and
- entry of biometric data
into the SIS.
SIRENE
Each Contracting Party will designate an authority which will
have central responsibility for its national section of the Schengen Information
System, namely SIRENE (Supplementary Information Request at National Entry).
Each Contracting Party will issue its alerts only via that authority.
SIRENE is responsible for the uninterrupted operation of the
national section of the Schengen Information System and adopts required actions
for ensuring the observance of the provisions of the Convention. One should
emphasise that expansive and improved cooperation between the police at the
basic level has been achieved with the SIS system and its auxiliary element
SIRENE. With the aid of these technical and operative systems, all information
defined by the end user in the system (predominantly patrol officers) can be
acquired.
SIRENE represents the foundation for international police
cooperation in the Schengen area (systematic police cooperation based on the
mutual exchange of data and alerts regarding persons and objects, ongoing and
concurrently updated by requesting members according to the principle of mutual
trust as if information was treated within the national legal scope).
All operations between SIRENE bureaus have been standardised
on the basis of the SIRENE Manual which is concurrently modified and supplemented
within the scope of the EU Commission.
TASKS AND COMPETENCES OF SIRENE
The core tasks of SIRENE national bureaus apply predominantly
to the exchange of supplementary information:
- prior to an alert;
- simultaneously while entering an alert;
- for multiple alerts;
- when
adding a flag;
- in the case of a hit;
- in the case of an alert regarding
the refusal of entry of a citizen from a third country;
- when the procedures
of a hit cannot be followed;
- if the original objective is changed and
- in the case of incorrect data or illegal archiving of data and entitlement
to access of personal data and correction thereof.
Tasks which SIRENE bureaus perform with regards to all categories
of alerts:
- verification of procedural compliance with the provisions
of the Schengen Convention;
- verification of the technical quality of data;
- observance of the prescribed
order of procedures;
- immediate notification to the reporter in the event
of a hit and
- the exchange of supplemental information.
In addition to its core tasks, additional tasks regarding
the ongoing and accelerated international police cooperation play a significant
role:
- the exchange of information in the field of police cooperation
(Articles 39, 40, 41 and 46);
- the issuing of alerts and exchange of information within the scope of
SIS has an advantage over the issuance of alerts and exchange of information
via Interpol (alert for the same person is not excluded).
SIRENE is not intended to replace or emulate Interpol. Although
several tasks overlap, the principles of actions and cooperation among the
contracting parties perceptibly differ from those regulated by the International
Criminal Police Organization.
The entry of alerts into SIS and suitable modification of
data always has priority over alerts and exchanges of information via Interpol.
This priority especially applies in the event of disputes between alerts from
SIS and Interpol. Within the scope of >Schengen<, priority will be given to
alerts issued through SIS as opposed to those issued by Interpol. The latter
will only be encountered as an exception (alerts which are not foreseen in
the Agreement, for example: inability to enter artificial objects into the
SIS system and those which do not possess adequate information for entry into
the SIS system).
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