EU: Revamping the Schengen Information System: trilogue documents on police cooperation and border checks
24 April 2018
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EU
Revamping the
Schengen Information System: trilogue documents on police cooperation,
border checks and returns
24.4.18
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Statewatch is today publishing the most recent documents from the secret "trilogue" meetings on the new rules that will govern the Schengen Information System (SIS). The documents concern the rules on the use of the system for police cooperation, border checks and returns.
All the measures are being discussed in secret trilogue meetings between the Council, Parliament and European Commission - an efficient but decidedly anti-democratic method of decision-making.
On 22 March the Court of Justice of the EU handed down an important judgment on the openness of trilogues (Case T-540/15 De Capitani v Parliament) which should help to bring more transparency to a process which is currently shrouded in secrecy. See: Briefing: Another step towards ending EU law-making through secret trilogue meetings (pdf) by Tony Bunyan, March 2018.
Between 70-80% of all EU legislative measures adopted are negotiated through trilogues. The European Parliament's civil liberties committee (LIBE) is today due to discuss the implications of that judgment.
The text on police cooperation includes 'Article 36 alerts', concerning "persons and objects for discreet checks, inquiry checks or specific checks," which are used to track the movements of wanted persons or 'persons of interest' to the authorities across the Schengen area.
According to the document, the current content has been "provisionally agreed at political trilogue on 12 April 2018 subject to further fine-tuning at technical level."
Police cooperation
Border checks
Returns
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