Schengen Convention: access for vehicle registration authorities to the Information System SIS, amending the Convention

PURPOSE : to enable the authorities responsible for issuing registration certificates for vehicles to have access to the SIS (Schengen Information System) database, to help in the fight against vehicle-related crime.

LEGISLATIVE ACT : Regulation 1160/2005/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council amending the Convention implementing the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 on the gradual abolition of checks at common borders, as regards access to the Schengen Information System by the services in the Member States responsible for issuing registration certificates for vehicles.

CONTENT : this Regulation amends the provisions of the Schengen Convention which in 1990 set up the SIS, an electronic network between the Member States containing data on lost or stolen motor vehicles. The Regulation is intended to supplement a Decision adopted by the Council in December 2004 on preventing vehicle crime, with the aim of establishing better cooperation within the EU.

According to the estimates quoted in the 2004 Decision, 1,2 million motor vehicles are stolen in the

EU each year, of which 30 to 40% are stolen by organised crime, causing damages amounting to at

least EUR 15 billion per year.

The services in the Member States responsible for issuing registration certificates for vehicles, as referred to in Council Directive 1999/37/EC on the registration documents for vehicles, shall have the right to have access to the following data entered into the Schengen Information System, for the sole purpose of checking whether vehicles presented to them for registration have been stolen, misappropriated or lost:

a) data concerning motor vehicles with a cylinder capacity exceeding 50 cc which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

b) data concerning trailers and caravans with an unladen weight exceeding 750 kg which have been stolen, misappropriated or lost;

c) data concerning registration certificates for vehicles and vehicle number plates which have been stolen, misappropriated, lost or invalidated.

The national law of each Member State shall govern access to those data by those services.

ENTRY INTO FORCE : 11/08/2005. The Regulation shall apply from 11 January 2006. For those Member States in which the provisions of the Schengen acquis relating to the SIS do not yet apply, this Regulation shall apply within six months after the date on which those provisions are put into effect for them, as specified in the Council Decision adopted to that effect in accordance with the applicable procedures. The content of this Regulation shall become binding for Norway 270 days after the date of its publication in the Official Journal of the European Union.