EU Parliament Members want more privacy in SIS II

The Committee of Civil Liberties, Justice and Home Affairs at the European
Parliament debated the draft Regulation on the establishment, operation and
use of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).

There was a consensus among members of the committee that better privacy
safeguards are needed for the SIS II, especially because it will contain
sensitive biometric data. Now the questions are related to the usage of the
biometric data as a search criterion by the law enforcement authorities.
However, representatives of the European Commission called the option of
using these data as a basis for searches “indispensable.”

The draft report on the proposal for the Regulation from the MEP Carlos
Coelho (PPE – Portugal) highlights that “a ‘bigger system’ requires ‘bigger
safeguards’. Consequently amendments for improved data protection standards
are put forward. A sense of priority for data protection has to be
displayed.”

Also the rapporteur notices that:” The Commission proposes the inclusion of
biometrics without any further specification as to the source of the
biometric data and its use. In his proposed Art. 16a the rapporteur
introduces certain basic rules to close this gap: Firstly, the biometric
data entered into SIS II has to pass a quality check according to a standard
to be established by comitology in order to reduce the risk of errors.
Secondly, a search with biometrics should be excluded at this initial stage
of the system.”

The report is in line with the Declaration adopted at the Conference of
European Data Protection Authorities at the end of April 2006 that
considered : ” There is no alternative to creating a high and harmonized
data protection standard in the EU Third Pillar. This is a logical
consequence of the Hague Programme, according to which the safeguarding of
freedom, security and justice are indivisible elements of the task of the EU
as a whole, as well as of the recent steps taken at EU-level on issues such
as the Visa Information System (VIS), the Schengen Information System II
(SIS II) or the interoperability among European databases in the area of
Justice and Home Affairs.”

EU parliamentarians demand better privacy protection for Schengen
Information System (5.05.2006)
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/72770

Draft Report on the proposal for a regulation of the European Parliament
and of the Council on the establishment, operation and use of the second
generation Schengen information system (SIS II) – LIBE committee –
Rapporteur: Carlos Coelho (31.03.2006)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/pr/609/609858/609858en.pdf

MEPs amendments to the proposal (25.04.2006)
http://www.europarl.eu.int/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/am/612/612230/612230xm.pdf

Proposal for a regulation on the establishment, operation and use of the
second generation Schengen information system (SIS II) (31.05.2005)
http://www.europarl.europa.eu/meetdocs/2004_2009/documents/com/com_com(2005)0236_/com_com(2005)0236_en.pdf

EDRI-gram Schengen information system goes biometric (15.01.2004)
http://www.edri.org/edrigram/number2.1/schengen

Declaration adopted at the Conference of European Data Protection
Authorities (25.04.2006)
http://www.edps.eu.int/legislation/06-04-25_Budapest_Declaration_EN.pdf