Karamanou (PSE).
– (EL) Mr President, as we all know, the current Schengen Information
System has been in operation since 1995 but did not become a Community resource
until 1999 when the Schengen acquis was adopted by the European Union in
the Treaty of Amsterdam. Its Community identity, therefore, implies that any
proposal to replace it must be bound by the same legal considerations governing
how it was set up and operates and that any extension to its purpose must be
subject to full democratic scrutiny by the relevant bodies, as previous
speakers have stated.
The current climate, with the need for
additional measures to safeguard our citizens and the inability of the current
information system to meet that need, should not provide fertile ground for
arbitrary derogations from and extensions to its powers. The proposed legal
framework needs to clarify certain crucial issues.
If natural persons are to be protected
against personal data processing, the joint supervisory body set up in the
Schengen Agreement needs to be involved. This authority has been commissioned
to draft an annual report on how the current system functions, including a
systematic review and analysis of the new data which the new system will
create. At the same time, the European Parliament needs to step up efforts to
ensure that the new system functions are monitored efficiently by calling for
regular progress reports. The point here is that, as far as the continuing
application of the Schengen Agreement is concerned, the Council has only
updated the European Parliament once, meaning that Parliament is unaware of
issues which impinge directly on the free and unimpeded movement of citizens or
how the Union's borders are controlled.
Finally, we also need to mention the need
to adopt a Community information system consisting of a single electronic
network in order to facilitate transparent data storage, management and
evaluation.