Council Decision 2005/211/JHA (repealed)Show full title

Article 1 U.K.

The provisions of the 1990 Schengen Convention are hereby amended as follows:

1.

the following paragraph shall be added to Article 92:

‘4. Member States shall, in accordance with national legislation, exchange through the authorities designated for that purpose (Sirene) all supplementary information necessary in connection with the entry of alerts and for allowing the appropriate action to be taken in cases where persons in respect of whom, and objects in respect of which, data have been entered in the Schengen Information System, are found as a result of searches made in this system. Such information shall be used only for the purpose for which it was transmitted.’;

2.

Article 94(2)(b) shall be replaced by the following:

‘(b)

objects referred to in Articles 99 and 100.’;

3.

the first paragraph of Article 94(3) shall be replaced by the following:

‘3. For persons, the information shall be no more than the following:

(a) surname and forenames, any aliases possibly entered separately;

(b) any specific objective physical characteristics not subject to change;

(c) (…);

(d) place and date of birth;

(e) sex;

(f) nationality;

(g) whether the persons concerned are armed, violent or have escaped;

(h) reason for the alert;

(i) action to be taken;

(j) in cases of alerts under Article 95: the type of offence(s)’;

4.

Article 99(1) shall be replaced by the following:

‘1. Data on persons or vehicles, boats, aircraft and containers shall be entered in accordance with the national law of the Member State issuing the alert, for the purposes of discreet surveillance or of specific checks in accordance with paragraph 5.’;

5.

the last sentence of Article 99(3) shall be replaced by the following:

‘The Member State issuing the alert pursuant to this paragraph shall be obliged to inform the other Member States thereof.’;

6.

the first sentence of Article 99(5) shall be replaced by the following:

‘5. During the specific checks referred to in paragraph 1, persons, vehicles, boats, aircraft, containers and objects carried may be searched in accordance with national law for the purposes referred to in paragraphs 2 and 3.’;

7.

Article 100(3) shall be replaced by the following:

‘3. The following categories of readily identifiable objects shall be entered:

(a) motor vehicles with a cylinder capacity exceeding 50 cc, boats and aircraft which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

(b) trailers with an unladen weight exceeding 750 kg, caravans, industrial equipment, outboard engines and containers which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

(c) firearms which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

(d) blank official documents which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

(e) issued identity papers such as passports, identity cards, driving licences, residence permits and travel documents which have been stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated;

(f) vehicle registration certificates and vehicle number plates which have been stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated;

(g) banknotes (registered notes);

(h) securities and means of payment such as cheques, credit cards, bonds, stocks and shares which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost.’;

8.

the following sentence shall be added at the end of Article 101(1):

‘However, access to data entered in the Schengen Information System and the right to search such data directly may also be exercised by national judicial authorities, inter alia, those responsible for the initiation of public prosecutions in criminal proceedings and judicial inquiries prior to indictment, in the performance of their tasks, as set out in national legislation.’;

9.

the following Articles shall be inserted:

‘Article 101A

1. The European Police Office (Europol) shall within its mandate and at its own expense have the right to have access to, and to search directly, data entered into the Schengen Information System in accordance with Articles 95, 99 and 100.

2. Europol may only search data which it requires for the performance of its tasks.

3. Where a search by Europol reveals the existence of an alert in the Schengen Information System, Europol shall inform, via the channels defined by the Europol Convention, the Member State which issued the alert thereof.

4. Use of information obtained from a search in the Schengen Information System is subject to the consent of the Member State concerned. If the Member State allows the use of such information, the handling thereof shall be governed by the Europol Convention. Europol may only communicate such information to third States and third bodies with the consent of the Member State concerned.

5. Europol may request supplementary information from the Member State concerned in accordance with the provisions set out in the Europol Convention.

6. Europol shall:

(a) record every search made by it, in accordance with the provisions of Article 103;

(b) without prejudice to paragraphs 4 and 5, not connect parts of the Schengen Information System nor transfer the data contained therein to which it has access to any computer system for data collection and processing in operation by or at Europol nor download or otherwise copy any parts of the Schengen Information System;

(c) limit access to data entered into the Schengen Information System to specifically authorised staff of Europol;

(d) adopt and apply the measures provided for in Article 118;

(e) allow the Joint Supervisory Body, set up under Article 24 of the Europol Convention, to review the activities of Europol in the exercise of its right to accede to and to search data entered into the Schengen Information System.

Article 101B

1. The national members of Eurojust and their assistants shall have the right to have access to, and search, data entered in accordance with Articles 95 and 98 into the Schengen Information System.

2. The national members of Eurojust and their assistants may only search data which they require for the performance of their tasks.

3. Where a search by a national member of Eurojust reveals the existence of an alert in the Schengen Information System, he or she shall inform the Member State having issued the alert thereof. Any communication of information obtained from such a search may only be communicated to third States and third bodies with the consent of the Member State having issued the alert.

4. Nothing in this Article shall be interpreted as affecting the provisions of the Council Decision setting up Eurojust concerning data protection and the liability for any unauthorised or incorrect processing of such data by the national members of Eurojust or their assistants, or as affecting the powers of the Joint Supervisory Body set up pursuant to Article 23 of that Council Decision.

5. Every search made by a national member of Eurojust or an assistant shall be recorded in accordance with the provisions of Article 103 and every use made by them of data to which they have acceded shall be registered.

6. No parts of the Schengen Information System shall be connected nor shall the data contained therein to which the national members or their assistants have access be transferred to any computer system for data collection and processing in operation by or at Eurojust nor shall any parts of the Schengen Information System be downloaded.

7. The access to data entered into the Schengen Information System shall be limited to the national members and their assistants and not be extended to Eurojust staff.

8. Measures as provided for in Article 118 shall be adopted and applied.’;

10.

Article 103 shall be replaced by the following:

‘Article 103

Each Member State shall ensure that every transmission of personal data is recorded in the national section of the Schengen Information System by the data file management authority for the purposes of checking whether the search is admissible or not. The record may only be used for this purpose and shall be deleted at the earliest after a period of one year and at the latest after a period of three years.’;

11.

the following Article shall be inserted:

‘Article 112A

1. Personal data held in files by the authorities referred to in Article 92(4) as a result of information exchange pursuant to that paragraph, shall be kept only for such time as may be required to achieve the purposes for which they were supplied. They shall in any event be deleted at the latest one year after the alert or alerts concerning the person or object concerned have been deleted from the Schengen Information System.

2. Paragraph 1 shall not prejudice the right of a Member State to keep in national files data relating to a particular alert which that Member State has issued or to an alert in connection with which action has been taken on its territory. The period of time for which such data may be held in such files shall be governed by national law.’;

12.

Article 113(1) shall be replaced by the following:

‘1. Data other than that referred to in Article 112 shall be kept for a maximum of 10 years and data on objects referred to in Article 99(1) for a maximum of five years.’;

13.

the following Article shall be inserted:

‘Article 113A

1. Data other than personal data held in files by the authorities referred to in Article 92(4) as a result of information exchange pursuant to that paragraph, shall be kept only for such time as may be required to achieve the purposes for which they were supplied. They shall in any event be deleted at the latest one year after the alert or alerts concerning the person or object concerned have been deleted from the Schengen Information System.

2. Paragraph 1 shall not prejudice the right of a Member State to keep in national files data relating to a particular alert which that Member State has issued or to an alert in connection with which action has been taken on its territory. The period of time for which such data may be held in such files shall be governed by national law.’.

Article 2 U.K.

1. Article 1(1), (5) and (8) of this Decision shall take effect 90 days after the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

2. Article 1(11) and (13) of this Decision shall take effect 180 days after the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

3. Article 1(1), (5), (8), (11) and (13) of this Decision shall take effect for Iceland and Norway 270 days after the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.

4. Article 1(2), (3), (4), (6), (7), (9), (10) and (12) shall take effect from a date to be fixed by the Council, acting unanimously, as soon as the necessary preconditions have been fulfilled.

The Council may decide to fix different dates concerning the taking effect of:

• Article 1(2), (4) and (6),

• Article 1(3),

• Article 1(7),

• Article 1(9), new Article 101A,

• Article 1(9), new Article 101B,

• Article 1(12).

5. Any decision of the Council in accordance with paragraph 4 shall be published in the Official Journal of the European Union.

Done at Brussels, 24 February 2005.

For the Council

The President

N. Schmit