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/

 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/

 MEPs amendments to the proposal (25.04.2006)

http://www.europarl.eu.int/

 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.eu.int/

 EDRI-gram Schengen information system goes biometric (15.01.2004)

http://www.edri.org/

 Declaration adopted at the Conference of European Data Protection Authorities (25.04.2006)

http://www.edps.eu.int/

Source : European Digital Rights