Mr President, Commissioner, ladies and gentlemen, Mr Coelho, I wish to begin by congratulating the rapporteur on his work. The report makes a balanced evaluation of the two Spanish initiatives on giving new functions to the Schengen Information System, which is especially important in the fight against terrorism. Following the attacks of 11 September 2001, the Council, together with the Commission, drafted a package of measures intended to increase the level of security in Europe and to ensure the highest degree of effectiveness in combating terrorism. Some of these measures have a direct effect on the Schengen Information System. Since SIS-II will only be operational in 2006, improving the current system is an urgent need that must be seen as part of the process of transition to the new system. These new functions will, of course, have to be adopted in total compliance with our citizens’ individual rights, freedoms and guarantees, with strict control of the use of personal data available in the SIS. We all understand the need to have efficient information systems, which are equal to the task of the challenges we face from international crime, but we can never use this as an excuse for disrespecting or ignoring the fundamental principles on which the Union is founded as a Community governed by the rule of law. We are therefore attempting to amend certain Articles of the Schengen Convention in the aim of giving it new functions. Giving Europol and the national members of Eurojust the opportunity to access certain data in the SIS is one of the most important practical proposals of this initiative. The need to improve cooperation in the field of justice and home affairs and, in particular, the linking and crosschecking of information from databases, is one of the aims that the European Union and the Member States must pursue. Against this backdrop, the fact that the SIS was created to support the Member States in areas involving public order and domestic security, areas that are covered by the action of Europol and Eurojust, leads us to approve the principle of exchanging information underlying the proposal contained in the Spanish initiative. Nevertheless, as emphasised by the Schengen Joint Supervisory Authority, the body responsible for monitoring the SIS, access to the database by Europol and the national members of Eurojust raises doubts in terms of data protection and can only become a reality if the basic principle of the legitimacy and legality of access to the database and its use is respected. In this context of having some reservations about the initial Spanish proposals, we welcome the rapporteur’s introduction of amendments that we believe respond to the concerns expressed by the Joint Supervisory Authority and by various members of the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms and Rights, Justice and Home Affairs. The European Police Service will therefore have the right to consult and study SIS data only for the purposes for which these data were provided. As to access by the national members of Eurojust, these will have the right to consult SIS data only if this right is compatible with the purposes for which the data were provided. National members of Eurojust will have to record all searches they undertake and will not be able to supply data to third countries or to other bodies. Other proposals contained in the initiative were rejected, in my opinion rightly so, by the Committee on Citizens’ Freedoms at the proposal of the rapporteur, because they did not provide sufficient guarantees, and it would therefore be preferable to continue to await SIS-II. This applies primarily to the proposal seeking to give the bodies responsible for issuing and studying permits the opportunity to access the data contained in the SIS. For the reasons I have given, the report Carlos Coelho has presented deserves the applause and the support of the Socialist Group. (Applause)

Political group: PSE