Schengen: migration from the Schengen Information System (SIS 1+) to the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). Decision

In accordance with Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 and Council Decision 2008/839/JHA, the Commission presents a progress report describing the work carried out in the second semester of 2012, concerning the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) and preparations for migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II.

Overview of progress during the period under review: the report states that considerable progress has been made in the development of the central system and in that of the majority of national systems. As a result, almost all the technical preparatory steps leading up to the actual migration of data were finalised in this reporting period. The paper describes the problems encountered. It notes that Finland announced delays in its national SIS II project, stating that its national system would not be ready before February 2013, but a mitigation solution has been found that relies on the temporary installation by Finland of an existing and proven technical solution, known under the acronym SIB.

The European Parliament has lifted the reserve of part of the credits for the SIS II project in the 2012 EU General Budget.

The second Milestone test (M2): the M2, executed in May 2012, proved the stability, reliability and performance of the Central System under operational conditions.

The Comprehensive test: the SIS II Central System demonstrated good and stable performance throughout the Comprehensive test. At national level, about half of the Member States had to rerun the Comprehensive test either fully or partially and with few exceptions they managed to do that successfully within the contingency period. Eventually, 25 Member States passed the Comprehensive test, although six test rounds instead of four were needed to reach this result. Two Member States (Poland and Switzerland) remained to rerun one test case and another two (Denmark and Finland) needed to rerun the entire test phase. The expected completion of the Comprehensive test, at the start of 2013, will mark an end to the series of test campaigns aiming at reaching the maturity of the entire system.

Migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II: the report recalls that the Commission proposed in May 2012 an amendment to the legal framework governing the actual data migration (the migration instruments) (please refer to NLE/2012/0033A and NLE/2012/0033B), and the recast entered into force on 30 December 2012, thus securing the legal  framework for a technically optimised migration process and a possibility of extra financial support to the national projects in relation to migration activities.

With regard to technical preparations, the report notes that the converter was successfully tested against both SIS1+ and SIS II and the interoperability tests were completed on 11 December 2012, ahead of schedule. The Commission continued working closely with the Member States in writing the Migration Manual.

SIS II budget: by the end of the reporting period, the total budgetary commitments made by the Commission on the SIS II project since 2002, amounted to EUR 167 632 518. Of this amount, EUR 128 372 295 had actually been paid between 2002 and the end of December 2012. The main expenditure items were development (EUR 70 792 838), the network (EUR 30 375 617), support and quality assurance (EUR 12 612 386) and preparation for operational management in Strasbourg and Sankt Johann im Pongau (EUR 9 309 334).

Additional financing for Member States' national development: the Community Actions part of the European External Borders Fund (EBF) has been made available to eight Member States. Most projects have been completed by the end of 2012.

Furthermore, the Commission has made all the necessary arrangements to launch a call for proposal allowing Member States to apply for the additional contributions under the recast migration instruments at the beginning of 2013. In total, EUR 13 million has been made available and EUR 715 000 has been fixed as upper limit per Member State (to be co-financed 25 % from national resources).

Accordingly, the SIS II project is now about to reach its final stage, which is the actual migration of data between SIS 1+ and SIS II. The timely transition to SIS II, including the adoption of a decision on the switchover date, represents the over-riding priority for the following reporting period (January – June 2013).