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Schengen: second generation information system SIS II, development. Initiative Belgium and Sweden

2001/0818(CNS)

This progress report deals with the work undertaken by the Commission between January and June 2008 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It is presented to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2424/2001 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).

The report focuses in particular on progress made on the testing of the SIS II system. To recap, the SIS II Project is divided into three phases:

  • phase 1 was concerned with system design and was completed prior to this reporting period;
  • phase 2 deals with development and testing of the Central System which is a significant part of the current work load, and is likely to be completed by the end of 2008;
  • phase 3 addresses final test and migration activities from the currently used SIS 1+ to SIS II. The preparatory work for migration is already underway.

Project status: following the successful implementation of SISone4ALL and the subsequent lifting of borders of the new Member States, the JHA Council in February 2008 concluded that SIS II should be re-scheduled in such a way that the Council can anticipate the start of SIS II operations by September 2009. In the early months of this reporting period the Commission services, in very close co operation with the Member States experts and the 'Friends of SIS II'(the group of Member States in charge of following the implementation of SIS II in the Member States, comprising the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and Norway) focussed on revising the SIS II schedule. During the preparation of this timetable, a number of open issues related to SIS II schedule were identified as potentially time consuming and / or implied other significant risks (in particular, migration).

Migration from SIS to SIS II: the Commission (with the participation of SIS1+ countries) will ensure that the central elements of SIS II and the connections with national systems will have been tested and will function by the end of 2008. In 2009 the central SIS II will be tested in its entirety with the national applications. At the technical level, there is consensus on the general approach for the migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II, which is to perform a one-shot switchover of the national systems. However, the success of SISone4All requires the migration of many more Member States / users than originally planned.

The Council on 28 February 2008 confirmed a migration approach from SIS 1+ to SIS II that provides a fall-back possibility with a gradual migration to remedy unexpected problems and, for that purpose, invited the Commission to provide a converter, to be used for a very limited period of time, linking SIS 1+ and SIS II to ensure that the SIS can continue functioning in any scenario.

Testing Central SIS II: the System Solution Test (SST) was designed to verify that the Central SIS II on the central site is compliant with the technical specification. These tests, conducted without national systems, were completed in December 2007, and accepted in early 2008.

There are currently three types of testing being undertaken with the participation of Member States / users:

  • the Connectivity Test checks the ability of the SIS II National System to connect to the SIS II Central System (on 30 June 2008, the state of play was as follows: 24 Member States and users had completed the Informal Connectivity Tests: AT, DE, PT, LU, EL, IT, SI, SK, IS, FI, NO, HU, NL, CZ, LT, DK, ES, CY, SE, BE, PL, EE, MT and LV);
  • the Compliance Test checks the interactions between the SIS II National System and the SIS II Central System for each national system separately, based on a set of pre-defined test cases agreed with the Member States (18 Member States are currently participating: a first group comprising 11 Member States ( SE, NO, PT, IT, FI, HU, EL, NL, CY, DE and AT) have to a large degree completed compliance testing; a second group of 7 Member States(DK, LT, EE, ES, IS, LU and LV) have recently commenced Compliance Testing and those remaining are scheduled to commence this task shortly. The target completion date for all Member States is October 2008;
  • the Operational Systems Test (OST) tests the Central System with a set of connected national systems. This stage of testing involves actual Member States and users, instead of simulators. This testing phase commenced, on 21May 2008 with 9 Member States / Users (AT, CY, DE, IT, NL, PT, SE, EL and NO) participating in the OST functional test. Although the OST is scheduled to be completed at the end of August 2008, concerns about the stability of the central system are becoming apparent.

Operational management: the preparations for operational management remain on track taking into account the synergies between SIS and VIS management. Various SIS II service contracts are yet to be completed with the national authorities hosting the main system (France) and the business continuity system (Austria) for a transitional period until the long-term management of SIS II is established. The second contract with France concerning provision of staff at the central site and training of staff in SIS II operations has been signed and negotiations on the third contract concerning activities to be carried out by the French authorities in the run up to go-live will commence shortly.

Financial management: the total appropriations for SIS II activities provided for in the 2008 General Budget amount to €26,620,000. A financing decision with a total budget of € 19,000,000 for SIS II (operating expenditure of the Schengen Information System and other operating expenditure which may result from this incorporation) and € 7,620,000 for SIS 1+ (installation of a communication infrastructure for SIS 1+ and operation and management of a communication infrastructure for SIS 1+) was adopted by the Commission on 21 December 2007. As the budget of 7,620,000 for SIS 1+ will not be used for this activity which has been taken over by the Council at the beginning of 2008, the amount has been transferred to SIS II for additional activities requested by the Council. At the time of drafting this report, 54.6% of the total SIS II appropriations have been committed and payments corresponding to 27.31% of payment appropriations have been made.

Conclusions: The development phase of the SIS II project remains a challenging task. Tests to ensure the connectivity and compliance between the Central SIS II with the national SIS systems have commenced. The key challenges at this point are to ensure the timely development of the converter for migration and the continuation of the various testing regimes.

For the period covered by the next report, the Commission intends to concentrate on testing the whole of the SIS II to check whether the performance is at least equivalent to that of the SIS 1+. Technical discussions are under way as to how test results can be best evaluated.