Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2001-09-20-Speech-4-023"
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"en.20010920.3.4-023"2
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"Mr President, first of all, on behalf of the Commission, I would like to congratulate Parliament and its rapporteur on their detailed work. This report on crossing external borders and the development of Schengen cooperation touches on a subject at the very heart of the creation of an area of freedom, security and justice. In fact Schengen is a rather special animal. On the one hand it guarantees freedom of movement, which is a key part of the Treaty, and on the other hand it responds to the need to encompass this freedom within a solid and coherent policy of external border controls and other compensatory measures. However, the integration of Schengen into the EU framework in practice marked the end of that agreement, although it lives on as a symbol. Schengen was created as a kind of test laboratory for the implementation of the absolute obligation laid down in the Single European Act. Schengen has subsequently been divided up and integrated into the framework of the Union, and the legislative provisions of the Community and of the Union are gradually replacing and developing the Schengen Convention and other decisions relating to it.
By way of example, the joint manual and joint consular instructions have become regulations, and new proposals under the third pillar complement or replace the equivalent provisions of the Schengen Convention, which have been assigned to this pillar. Furthermore, in July the Commission submitted to the Council and Parliament a proposal bringing together in a single legal instrument the five categories of persons who can move freely within an uncontrolled area, thus following up the wish expressed by the European Parliament to bring together the various disparate provisions governing the movement of persons. The Commission accordingly intends to bring forward a proposal relating to Article 2 of the Schengen Protocol, so as to better encompass the safeguard clause on the reintroduction of internal border controls. This work has not been completed, but the objective is to ‘Amsterdamise’ Schengen in the near future. Mr President, that is why I think it would be difficult to embark upon an exercise which would involve regular reports on Schengen, because these would end up being reports on the various instruments that have replaced or are in the process of replacing Schengen. But I can commit the Commission to continuing to keep Parliament regularly informed of developments in this field, which for the sake of semantic convenience we will call Schengen.
Furthermore, Parliament is kept informed of overall legislative and practical activity by means of the scoreboard created following the Tampere Council, which is regularly updated. The Commission considered that the conversion of the Schengen acquis should be based on priority needs depending on the development of the situation and political guidance from the Council and Parliament. One of these priorities is of course the development of the Schengen Information System, and of course also, and this will be of great interest to you, issues relating to the candidate countries. The rapporteur has taken these concerns on board and the Commission certainly shares them.
I would like to give you some information on the most recent developments concerning the Schengen Information System, SIS II. As you know, the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 28 and 29 May did not reach unanimous agreement on intergovernmental finance. It was therefore agreed to provide financing from the Community budget. Furthermore, the Belgian Presidency and Sweden presented two initiatives, one on the first pillar and the other on the third pillar, with a view to giving the Commission, assisted by a committee, responsibility for developing SIS II between 2002 and 2006. The key objective of these two proposals, which are currently being considered by the Council, is first of all to provide a legal basis for the financing of this stage of development. Secondly, legislative proposals are to be presented on the various key aspects of SIS II, in particular the issue of management and functionality. In the context of its responsibility for financing, the Commission will also present a communication covering the various aspects of SIS II, that is to say legal, technical and financial issues, but also the various preparatory stages needed, and also the general method to be adopted until SIS II is finally established.
Mr President, Mr Coelho, I wish to conclude by assuring you that your resolution will be taken into account by the Commission in assessing the efforts already made and those that remain to be made and in defining its priorities for action in the Schengen field."@en1
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