Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-12-13-Speech-3-475"
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"en.20061213.41.3-475"2
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".
Mr President, ladies and gentlemen, first of all, I consider it my duty to thank the rapporteur, Mr Coelho, for the excellent work he has done on these proposals and also for the speed with which we have received the reports and have come to have this plenary debate this evening.
Many Members will know that the Council of Home Affairs Ministers adopted some important conclusions last week. These conclusions once again confirmed that the Schengen II Information System is the European Union’s main priority, and therefore it is clear that extending the Commission’s mandate on SIS II is essential in order to ensure that it can continue to develop the system in close cooperation with the Member States.
You will also be aware that the Council has accepted a proposal from the Portuguese Government – which I myself endorse on behalf of the Commission – for a temporary solution, which we have called SIS One For All. That is to say, it is a mechanism designed to ensure that the internal borders of the new Member States can be removed during the phase of transition to SIS II, while keeping the original deadline set for the end of 2007.
That does not make us lose sight of the main objective, which is SIS II, which will guarantee greater security in border controls. It will confirm the outcome that we want to achieve by the end of 2007, which is to remove controls on the internal borders of the new Member States that have asked to join the enlarged Schengen agreement.
Therefore, if these countries meet the necessary security criteria at their land and sea borders and at their airports, as I hope they will, they will be able to crown the political completion of their accession by forming a European domestic area without border controls, extending from Portugal across to Lithuania. That will be an enormous political success for Europe.
SIS II will in any case continue to be our main objective: it will guarantee a higher level of security, be of greater help to the police authorities in charge of control and security, and provide better protection of personal data, which will be included in the system on the basis of greater transparency and accountability.
For all these reasons, SIS II remains the objective for our European area of security and freedom of movement, and that is why, in line with the rapporteur’s position, we are asking for an extension to the Commission’s mandate so that we can continue to develop SIS II.
The Council of Ministers’ acceptance of the Portuguese proposal will entail a delay in implementing SIS II. It will not be an enormous delay, and I can tell the rapporteur and Parliament already that in February 2007 the Commission will submit a definite proposal for the final date for developing SIS II. The delay will be no more than six to eight months following the date originally set. All in all, that is acceptable, if you consider that in the meantime the new Member States will have achieved the political success of joining a European area without internal borders."@en1
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