Council Decision 2007/533/JHA of 12 June 2007 on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II)

A second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) is hereby established.

The purpose of SIS II shall be, in accordance with this Decision, to ensure a high level of security within the area of freedom, security and justice of the European Union including the maintenance of public security and public policy and the safeguarding of security in the territories of the Member States, and to apply the provisions of Title IV of Part Three of the EC Treaty relating to the movement of persons in their territories, using information communicated via this system.

This Decision establishes the conditions and procedures for the entry and processing in SIS II of alerts on persons and objects, the exchange of supplementary information and additional data for the purpose of police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters.

This Decision also lays down provisions on the technical architecture of SIS II, the responsibilities of the Member States and of the management authority referred to in Article 15, general data processing, the rights of the persons concerned and liability.

For the purposes of this Decision, the following definitions shall apply:

1. ‘alert’ means a set of data entered in SIS II allowing the competent authorities to identify a person or an object with a view to taking specific action;

2. ‘supplementary information’ means information not stored in SIS II, but connected to SIS II alerts, which is to be exchanged:

   1. in order to allow Member States to consult or inform each other when entering an alert;

   2. following a hit in order to allow the appropriate action to be taken;

   3. when the required action cannot be taken;

   4. when dealing with the quality of SIS II data;

   5. when dealing with the compatibility and priority of alerts;

   6. when dealing with rights of access;

3. ‘additional data’ means the data stored in SIS II and connected with SIS II alerts which are to be immediately available to the competent authorities where a person in respect of whom data has been entered in SIS II is located as a result of searches made therein;

4. ‘personal data’ means any information relating to an identified or identifiable natural person (data subject); an identifiable person is one who can be identified, directly or indirectly;

5. ‘processing of personal data’ (processing) means any operation or set of operations which is performed upon personal data, whether or not by automatic means, such as collection, recording, organisation, storage, adaptation or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination or otherwise making available, alignment or combination, blocking, erasure or destruction.

Any reference in this Decision to provisions of the Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA shall be construed as including the corresponding provisions of Agreements concluded between the European Union and third countries on the basis of Articles 24 and 38 of the EU Treaty for the purpose of surrender of persons on the basis of an arrest warrant which provide for the transmission of such an arrest warrant via the Schengen Information System.

SIS II shall be composed of:

1. a central system (Central SIS II) composed of:

   • a technical support function (‘CS-SIS’) containing a database, the ‘SIS II database’,

   • a uniform national interface (NI-SIS);

2. a national system (N.SIS II) in each of the Member States, consisting of the national data systems which communicate with Central SIS II. An N.SIS II may contain a data file (a ‘national copy’), containing a complete or partial copy of the SIS II database;

3. a communication infrastructure between CS-SIS and NI-SIS (the Communication Infrastructure) that provides an encrypted virtual network dedicated to SIS II data and the exchange of data between SIRENE Bureaux as referred to in Article 7(2).

SIS II data shall be entered, updated, deleted and searched via the various N.SIS II systems. A national copy shall be available for the purpose of carrying out automated searches in the territory of each of the Member States using such a copy. It shall not be possible to search the data files of other Member States' N.SIS II.

CS-SIS, which performs technical supervision and administration functions, shall be located in Strasbourg (France) and a backup CS-SIS, capable of ensuring all functionalities of the principal CS-SIS in the event of failure of this system, shall be located in Sankt Johann im Pongau (Austria).

CS-SIS shall provide the services necessary for the entry and processing of SIS II data, including searches in the SIS II database. For the Member States which use a national copy CS-SIS shall:

1. provide on-line update of the national copies;

2. ensure synchronisation of and consistency between the national copies and the SIS II database;

3. provide the operation for initialisation and restoration of the national copies.