EN    EN 
 EUROPEAN 
COMMISSION  
Brussels, 11.10.2012  
COM(2012) 587 final 
  
REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 
PROGRESS REPORT ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE SECOND GENERATION 
SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM (SIS II)   
January 2012 - June 2012 
 
 
EN 2   EN TABLE OF CONTENTS 
1. Introduction................................................................................................................ .. 3 
2. Project Status.............................................................................................................. .. 3 
2.1. Overview of progress duri ng the period under review........................................................ 3 
2.2. Technical framework for finalising the project................................................................... 4 2.3. Preparations for migration................................................................................................ ... 7 
2.4. SIS II network ............................................................................................................ ......... 8 
2.5. Security.................................................................................................................. .............. 8 
3. Management................................................................................................................. 9  
3.1. Financial aspects ......................................................................................................... ........ 9 
3.2. Operational management................................................................................................... 1 0 
3.3. Project management ........................................................................................................ .. 10 
3.3.1. Global Programme Management Board (GPMB).......................................................... 10 3.3.2. SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II) .......................................................................................... 11 3.3.3. National planning and coordination ............................................................................... 11 3.3.4. Council ................................................................................................................. .......... 11 
3.3.5. European Parliament ..................................................................................................... . 12 
3.3.6. Risk management ......................................................................................................... .. 12 
4. Priorities for the ne xt reporting period....................................................................... 12 
5. Conclusions................................................................................................................ 1 3 
 
EN 3   EN REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO  THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND 
THE COUNCIL 
PROGRESS REPORT ON THE DEVELO PMENT OF THE SECOND GENERATION 
SCHENGEN INFORMATION SYSTEM (SIS II)   
January 2012 - June 2012 
1. I NTRODUCTION  
This progress report describes the work carried out in the first semester of 2012, concerning 
the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) and preparations for migration from SIS 1+ to SI S II. It is presented to the Council and the 
European Parliament in accordance with Article 18 of Council Regulation (EC) No 
1104/2008 of 24 October 2008
1 and of Council Decision 2008/ 839/JHA of 24 October 20082 
on migration from the Schengen Informa tion System (SIS 1+) to the SIS II. 
2. P ROJECT STATUS  
2.1. Overview of progress during the period under review 
Following the testing of the national and cent ral systems' components in the previous 
semester, the focus of activity co ncentrated in the first half of  2012 on intensive testing of the 
central system and its increasing interaction with the national systems. The preparations for the final stages of the project, namely the comp letion of the Comprehensive test and the actual 
migration of data, advanced consid erably during the reporting period.  
The successful result of the second Milestone test executed between 2 and 7 May by the 
Commission, involving eleven Memb er States, proved the maturity  of the Central System and 
demonstrates the progress achieved in  the implementation of the project.  
Adherence to the global schedule has been safe guarded, notwithstanding challenges stemming 
from demanding testing activities carried out in parallel both at centr al and national level:  
(i) Several Member States t ook advantage of the extended schedule to complete their 
Compliance tests - extended (CTE) national campai gns. As the successful completion of this 
testing phase constitutes to be a prerequisite for participating in the Comprehensive test, the 
remaining issues at national level have been  progressively dealt with by the respective 
Member States and the Commi ssion as a matter of urgency.  
                                                
 
1 Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 of 24 October 2008 on migration from the Schengen 
Information System (SIS 1+) to the second genera tion Schengen Information System (SIS II) (OJ L 
299, 8.11.2008, p. 1). 
2 Council Decision 2008/839/JHA of 24 October 2008 on migration from the Schengen Information 
System (SIS 1+) to the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) (OJ L 299, 8.11.2008, 
p. 43). 
 
EN 4   EN (ii) The unavailability of qualif ied and validated SIS 1+ test tools that Fran ce was due to 
deliver impacted the tests at th e central level, in particular  the preparati on of the second 
Milestone test. The related risk of delay to  the overall schedule was averted, after due 
consultation with the Member States, through the use of the SIS II test tools. These latter 
tools, already foreseen for use during the Milestone 2 test, were fully qualified and validated 
in full transparency towards the Member States. The availability of one of the two SIS 1+ test tools was eventually achieved within th e framework and for the purpose of the 
Comprehensive test.  
(iii) Upon the confirmation of th e unavailability of the origina lly foreseen principal test 
manager (i.e. the Member States' SIS 1 contracto r), an expert from one of the Member States 
took over this role after bei ng appointed by the appropriate Council working party. Following 
an invitation from the Presidency, the Co mmission undertook to implement a contractual 
solution to provide technical support to the Member States' test manager.  
Such challenges required a close cooperation between the Commission, the experts from the 
Member States within the Global Programme Management Board (GPMB) and the SIS-VIS 
Committee. Overall, the generally constructive a pproach of the stakeholders ensured that the 
project remained on track, both time-wise and budget-wise. 
2.2. Technical framework fo r finalising the project 
Tests
  
The past months were devoted to testing activi ties to ascertain the proper functioning of the 
SIS II as a whole. Several test campaigns we re carried out during th is reporting period in 
order to prove the stability, proper functioni ng and performance of both the central and 
national systems.  
(a) CTE  
The Compliance test - extended (CTE) campaign aims at verifying the compliance of the 
national systems with the SIS II specifications. By mid-June, the majority  (26) of the Member 
States had successfully completed their na tional CTE campaign. However, four Member 
States still faced technical issues, which delayed their availability for the first groups of the 
Comprehensive Test. Shifting the majority of the affected Member States to the last testing group (group 4) of the Comprehensive test, wh ile fixing the problems in close cooperation 
with the Commission and the contractors, should provide the time for the necessary 
improvements to be accomplished by August 2012 at the latest. 
(b) CSQT without Member States
 
Through carrying out thousands of test cases, th e Central System qualification tests without 
Member States (CSQT w/o MS) aimed at veri fying that the Central System meets the 
functional as well as non-functional requirements.  The link between the system's Central Unit 
(CU) in Strasbourg and the Back-up Central Un it (BCU) in St. Johann im Pongau was tested 
in order to ascertain the equiva lence of data in the two databases. Started in July 2011, this 
test phase was completed in January 2012.  
(c) CSQT with Member States  
 
EN 5   EN Building on the previous test  campaign, but with the notable differenc e that eight active 
national systems participated in the test, the Central System Qualification Tests with the 
Member States (CSQT MS) started on 16 January 2012 as  foreseen and ended on 19 
February. The test was accepted on 27 April 2012.  
(d) PSAT  
The Provisional System Acceptance Test (PSAT)  took place in March 2012. The PSAT lasted 
five days, during which the twelve  volunteer Member States tested  their data load on both the 
Central and Back-up Central Units. The analysis of the results indicates that both units withstood the test without substantial problems , although certain re-testing was necessary at 
the BCU. Furthermore, the test phase highlighted  the lack of robustnes s of certain national 
systems, which had to be replaced by simulators  in the course of the execution of the test. 
These national shortcomings have b een duly addressed in the meanwhile. 
(e) The second Milestone test (M2)
 
The highlight of the reporting period was the ex ecution of the second Mile stone test. This test 
was the second extra checkpoint included in the te sting schedule of the pr oject at the request 
of the JHA Council in June 20093.  
According to the June 2009 Council Conclusion s, France was supposed to adapt certain SIS1 
testing tools to the purpose of the milestone test s. The first tool, which was due to record the 
transactions exchanged between  the Central System and nati onal systems, was abandoned in 
March 2012 whilst the second, designed to analyse the records in order to determine if the 
system performance complies with the specifications, was only partly qualified by the time of the Comprehensive test but was not ready for the second Milestone test. As a mitigation measure to maintain the planned system go-live in March 2013 while guaranteeing the 
credibility of this testing campaign, it was decide d in agreement with th e majority of Member 
States' experts to only use for the purpose of  the second Milestone those testing tools 
explicitly mentioned in the June 2009 Council C onclusion that were read y, namely the SIS II 
testing tools developed by the Commission contractors. After thorough testing, these tools 
were qualified by all Member States.  
The core of the second Milestone took place be tween 2 and 7 May with the involvement of 
the national systems of eleven Member States . The central system and the national systems 
exchanged uninterruptedly over two million standard transactions (consisting of the cr
eation, 
update or d eletion of SIS II alerts), th ereby exceeding in five days  the load of SIS 1 over an 
entire month as well as the requirements se t out in the June 2009 Council Conclusions. In 
parallel, the system also handled during these fi ve days about 50 million queries to the Central 
Database, a functionality that does not exist in  SIS 1. The test demonstrated that the Central 
and Back-up Unit remained fully synchronised. No interruption or dr op out was experienced, 
only one Member State faced a short power cut but the Central system and National system 
efficiently managed this incident.  
In essence, the second Milestone test demonstrat ed the stability of the SIS II Central system 
under operational conditions. As explained in de tail in the Commission's validation report, the 
Milestone's objective (i.e. to prove the stability , reliability and performance of the Central 
                                                 
3 10708/09 
 
EN 6   EN System) was met. The entry, execution and exit  conditions were satisf ied. All twelve success 
criteria were passed.  
In accordance with the procedure set out in the June 2009 Council Conclusions4, the result of 
the test was technically assessed and validated by the Commission jointly with the GPMB and 
the SIS II Task Force on 26 June. Formal recognition of this positive verdict by COREPER and Council followed in July 2012. The Commission also officially informed the European Parliament about the outcome of the test. 
(f) The Comprehensive test
 
The final version of the comprehensive test plan outlining the final testing phase from June to 
September 2012 was endorsed by the Worki ng Party on Schengen Matters (SIS-TECH 
formation) on 24 May 2012. 
Taking into account the se ries of Central system tests al ready carried out and the positive 
outcome of the second Milestone test in particular, the Commi ssion declared the readiness of 
the components for which it is responsible in COREPER of 30 May5 2012. The notification, 
made in compliance with the SIS II legal basis allowed stakeholders to proceed to the comprehensive test.  
Since the objective of the comprehensive test is  to test the performance of the system from 
end to end, substantial engagement of the Member  States is required. In  order to present the 
organisation of the test and to clarify its elements, a preparatory technical workshop was 
organised on 31 May 2012. 
Following contractual constraints faced by the French administration not allowing appointing 
a SIS 1 contractor (as initially foreseen), a Member State expert wa s appointed as Member 
States' Test Manager for the Comprehensive test . However, at the request of Member States, 
the Commission agreed to contractually cover s upport services of the SIS 1 contractor. The 
GPMB assisted the test management team as we ll. The formal part of the Comprehensive test 
started on 19 June with the first group of ei ght Member States, to be followed by another 
three groups during the next seme ster. The first round of the te st was completed on 27 June. 
According to a preliminary analysis, no major diffi culty was identified ei ther with the central 
or national systems. Exceptional issues, such as a short (one day) instability of the network 
monitoring tool or diverging view s on the technical procedures in  one test case were promptly 
resolved through overall good cooperati on between the parties involved. 
 
                                                
 
4 The SIS II Task Force, consisting of the experts of the interested Member States,  was established by the 
conclusions of the JHA Council of October 2006 in or der to "assist the Council, in cooperation with the 
Commission, on the management and coordination of the SIS II project, including the state of preparedness of all Member States"  
5 Common Article 8 (1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 of 24.10.2008 and of Council 
Decision 2008/839/JHA of 24.10.2008. 
 
EN 7   EN 2.3. Preparations for migration 
A converter is at the core of the interim mi gration architecture designed to allow for the 
transfer of the SIS 1 data to the new system6. 
After passing the Factory Acceptance Tests in  October 2011, the converter was deployed to 
Strasbourg and tested against SIS II (System Solution Testing - SST1) in anticipation of 
further testing with SIS 1+. Additionally the Commission installed and tested the necessary SIS 1+ communication components in the converte r itself, a necessary st ep prior to linking 
the converter to SIS 1+. Prepar ations were made to connect  the converter to the test 
environment for the start of 2012.  
In the first half of 2012, the converter was tested against SI S 1+ (Qualification Tests). As 
from end of May 2012, the converter is being tested against both systems (System Solution 
Testing – Full Integration (SST2)). The preparati ons of the infrastructure were completed and 
functional tests started on 11 June 2012 as foresee n. This testing phase is to be completed by 
the end of August 2012. Following a phase of reh earsals, the next step will be live data 
migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II early in 2013. 
Planning the migration
 
The Commission proposed in May 2012 an amen dment to the legal framework governing the 
actual data migration (the so-called migration instruments). The goals are to align the legal 
provisions with the technical appr oach as agreed together with the Member States in 2011 and 
to provide an additional financial facility to Member States for well-defined migration related activities. The adoption of the proposal is expected  in the second ha lf of 2012 after the 
European Parliament has also been consulted. 
The Commission is working closely with the Memb er States in writing the Migration Manual, 
a document setting out in detail the steps outlined in the Migration Plan. A migration 
workshop took place at the end of March on the Migration Manual where the Member States 
agreed to the refined switch-ove r approach - the Member States  are now organised in four 
groups instead of migrating indi vidually. The Manual will define  roles and responsibilities 
throughout the process and describe the detailed schedule for the migration. This task, which 
commenced in December 2011, must be finalised by the end of 2012.  
The migration legal instruments provide that the Member States participating in SIS 1+ shall 
conduct a test on supplementary info rmation (functional SIRENE tests)
7. The Commission 
continued to support Member States in thei r preparations to review the technical 
specifications of data exchange between the SI RENE Bureaux, and in the elaboration of the 
detailed test description for the SIRENE Functional tests, an activity to take place in the second half of 2012.  
Between February and June 2012 the SISVIS Committee SIRENE form ation, meeting four 
times, reviewed and updated the SIRENE Manua l and other implementing measures for the 
                                                
 
6 Common Article 10 (3) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 of 24.10.2008 and of Council 
Decision 2008/839/JHA of 24.10.2008. 
7 Common Article 9 (1) of Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 and of Council Decision 
2008/839/JHA. 
 
EN 8   EN purpose of SIS II in order to finalise SIRENE procedures a nd SIRENE forms by the time of 
the start of the SIRENE Functional tests in September 2012. The respective adoption of the 
Commission Implementing Decision is foreseen  in the second half of the year.  
2.4. SIS II network  
The SIS II project includes the provision of a wide area communications network, meeting the 
requirements of availability, security, geographical  coverage and level of service, to enable 
the central and national systems to communicate. 
For operational purposes, Member States have both main and back-up interfaces with the 
network. During the reporting period, the proce ss of reactivating Member States' back-up 
interfaces in order to prepare for tests involv ing switching between main and back-up sites 
continued.  
The SIS II legal instruments describe the comm unication infrastructure  dedicated to SIS II 
data and the exchange of da ta between SIRENE Bureaux8. Following the Member States 
confirmation of the technical specifications of the SIS II SIRENE mail relay, the Commission finalised the procurement procedures. The mail re lay was installed in the first half of 2012, in 
anticipation of the Member Stat es' test on supplementary inform ation. The first phase of basic 
connectivity tests took place on 15-16 May. The second phase followed on 14-15 June. The results of the Basic Connectivity  Tests of the sec ond phase are being ev aluated. A third, and 
final, phase is scheduled for 18 July 2012. 
 
2.5. Security  
The study on additional network security for SI S II was presented to the SIS-VIS Committee 
in the previous reporting peri od. A technical solution, complyi ng with all requirements, was 
identified and a pilot project subsequent ly commenced. The necessary equipment was 
purchased and a first test phase was run between October 2011 and February 2012 in a 
controlled environment. All technical options fo r the deployment of a solution were validated. 
The next step of the pilot project will be to perform a further test, fo r which the participation 
of three volunteer Member States will be needed. Germany and Austria have already put themselves forward to participate and a further volunteer is sought. The test is due to take place in September 2012.  
 
                                                
 
8 Common Article 4 of Regulation (EC) No 1987/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 
20 December 2006 on the establis hment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen 
Information System (SIS II) (OJ L 381, 28.12.2006, p. 4) and of Council Decision 2007/533/JHA of 12 
June 2007 on the establishment, operation and use of the second generation Schengen Information 
System (SIS II) (OJ L 205, 7.8.2007, p. 63). 
 
EN 9   EN 3. M ANAGEMENT  
3.1. Financial aspects  
SIS II budget  
By the end of the reporting pe riod, the total budgetary commit ments made by the Commission 
on the SIS II project since 2002, amounted to  EUR 149 811 765. The corresponding contracts 
include feasibility studi es, the development of the Centra l SIS II itself, s upport and quality 
assurance, the SIS II network, preparation for operational management in Strasbourg, 
security, biometrics preparations, comm unication and experts' mission expenses. 
Of this amount, EUR 109 899 337 had actually b een paid between 2002 and the end of June 
2012. The main expenditure items were de velopment (EUR 62 364 845), the network 
(EUR 27 379 985), support and quality assura nce (EUR 11 207 827) and preparation for 
operational management in Strasbourg a nd Sankt Johann im Pongau (EUR 7 279 228). 
Budget execution  
 From 2002 to June 2012  From January to June 2012  
(EUR)  Commitments  Payments  Commitments  Payments  
Development 
(HP/Stéria)  80 593 047  59 285 803  0  8 213 662  
Development (Atos)  3 535 041  3 079 041  0  1 814 541  
Support & quality 
assurance  14 281 792  11 207 827  1 189 523  1 715 330  
Network  38 526 008  27 379 985  0  2 396 868  
Operational 
management 
preparation  9 201 624  7 279 228  235 730  201 925  
Security  1 358 310  221 739  0  4 027  
Studies / Consultancy  1 064 410  963 207  103 279  20 947  
Information Campaign  33 373  33 373  0  0  
Experts Mission 
Expenses  1 203 286  434 259  0  117 682  
Others  14 874  14 874  0  0  
TOTAL:  149 811 765  109 899 337  1 528 532  14 484 983  
 
 
EN 10   EN Additional financing for Member  States' national development  
In order to support the completion of nationa l projects development through the European 
External Borders Fund (EBF) a significant real location of resources to wards SIS II national 
projects was undertaken within the framew ork of the 2011 programming for the EBF. The 
Community Actions part of the EBF has been ma de available to eight Member States with 
constraints to accommodate their extra needs in their annual programmes for 2011. 
These projects commenced at the end of 2011 a nd are due to be completed in the late summer 
or early autumn of 2012.  
3.2. Operational management 
Following the adoption of the establishing Regulation in October 20119, the Agency for the 
operational management of the large-scale IT systems in the area of freedom, security and 
justice will take up its responsib ilities as regards the operati onal management of SIS II once 
this system is brought into operation.  
The Commission has been carrying out the necessary administrati ve tasks to get the Agency 
off the ground. The Member States and the Co mmission nominated their representatives to 
the Agency Management Board as well as to the respective advisory groups. In line with provisions of the Agency founding regulation, an  interim Executive Dir ector was appointed 
on 16 April. 
The Management Board met twice during this semester - the inaugural Management Board 
meeting took place on 22-23 March 2012 in Ta llinn and the second meeting on 28 June, 
where the regular Executive Director was sele cted. Following a statement before the LIBE 
Committee on 10 July, the European Parliament is due to adopt an opinion on the selected 
candidate. Subsequently, the succe ssful candidate is due to be  appointed by the Management 
Board via written procedure. The first meeting of the SIS II advisory group took place on 6-7 
June. 
Further preparatory activities are in process to  set up the Agency and its working environment 
allowing it to perform the entrusted tasks from 1 December 2012 (i.e. recruitment of the staff, 
fitting of the temporary premises, finalisation of the key documents that will enable the 
Agency to operate such as the work progr amme for 2012 and 2013, negotiation of agreements 
with host Member States and associated countries).  
 
3.3. Project management  
3.3.1. Global Programme Management Board (GPMB) Within the remit of its mandate as formalised by the migration legal instrument adopted on 3 
June 2010, the GPMB continued to  provide advice in clarifying a great variety of project-
related issues focused on the preparation for th e second Milestone test and the Comprehensive 
test. The exchange of views between the Pres idency, the Commission, several Member States' 
                                                
 
9 Regulation (EU) No 1077/2011of the European Parliament and the Council of 25 October 2011 
 
EN 11   EN experts and the Commission's main contracter fu rther served the objective of the GPMB, that 
is to facilitate consistency between central and national SIS II projects.  
Twenty plenary GPMB meetings took place during the period covered by this report.  
3.3.2. SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II) 
There were five meetings of the SIS-VIS Committee on SIS II technical matters in the period 
January – June 2012. Several key approvals were  achieved on migration and testing within 
this comitology framework.  
In addition to regular SIS-VIS Committee me etings, working groups of the Committee and 
workshops, involving Member Stat es' experts, are organised to  discuss detailed technical 
issues. These meetings generally focus on issues  arising from specific project deliverables: 
• The Test Advisory Group (TAG), provides the SIS-VIS Committee with an opinion 
on issues related to the organisation, implem entation and interpretation of tests. This 
group held 23 meetings in the reporting period. 
• The Change Management Board (CMB),  provides advice on  classification, 
qualification and the potential impact of co rrection of reported issues. Due to the 
amount of effort expended on agreeing the upd ated technical specifications of the 
central system in 2010-11 and the subsequent  stabilisation of requirements, this 
working group, which also reports to th e SIS-VIS Committee, was not formally 
convened during the reporting period. Memb er States and the Commission, however, 
reviewed and updated the CMB rules of proced ure to allow Member States to assess 
whether the planned changes in their national systems are in compliance with the central system. 
• There was one SIS II Migration Workshop during this period. 
3.3.3. National planning and coordination 
A working group composed of the Member States' national project managers (NPM) is 
organised to advise the Comm ission project team. The purpose of the NPM meetings is to 
deal with detailed planning issues, risks and act ivities both at the central and national project 
levels. During this reporting period five NPM meetings took place. 
3.3.4. Council  
In line with the Council Conclusions and in order to maintain comp lete transparency, the 
Commission keeps the Council regularly inform ed about the implementation of the Global 
Schedule for SIS II and expenditure  on the central project.  
Across the Council bodies, the Commission continues to participate actively in meetings as 
well as in their preparation. In seeking clarification and solutions  to whatever issues may be 
raised by the Member States the contribut ion of the Commission goes beyond simply 
providing regular updates on the state of play. In general, th anks to the overall cooperative 
atmosphere the issues at stake were solved at  the technical level. T horough preparatory work, 
including a letter sent by the Commissioner pr ior to the April JHA Council, resulted in 
constructive progress at the Ministerial level.   
 
EN 12   EN The Commission continues to ci rculate a weekly flash re port, summarising technical 
developments, to colleagues engaged in the project at national level. 
3.3.5. European Parliament 
Part of the appropriations for th e SIS II project in the EU Gene ral Budget is held in reserve by 
the European Parliament. The Commission keeps the European Parliament informed on the state of play of SIS II. In addition to fu lfilling the reporting obligations stemming from the 
SIS II legal instruments by means of the SIS II Progress Report
10, in line with the Council 
Conclusions of 5 June 2009, the Commission pr ovided on various occas ions the European 
Parliament representatives with updated inform ation on financial, contractual and scheduling 
matters and the status of the project. Finally, the Commission responded to a parliamentary 
question on SIS II related matters. 
3.3.6. Risk management 
The Commission closely monitors the risks in th e SIS II project with the support of its Quality 
Assurance contractor. For each identified risk, a mitigation plan is established specifying the 
mitigation measures to be taken to manage the ri sk. The list of identified risks is being kept up 
to date every week and is presented to  and discussed with the Global Programme 
Management Board on a monthly basis.  
 
The main risks during the reporting period were the following: 
 
• the encountered delays in the Compliance Tests Extended (CTE) 
• the (un)availability of a fully qualified SFR tool 
• the resource shortages at C.SIS side 
• the limited time remaining for con tingency in the migration schedule  
• the possible delay of the migra tion legal instrument recast 
4. P RIORITIES FOR THE NEXT REPORTING PERIOD  
During the next reporting period, July to Decem ber 2012, there will be seven principal areas 
of activity: 
 
• the finalisation of CTE testing at national level 
• the completion of the Comprehensive test 
                                                 
10 Common Article 18 of Council Regulation (EC) No 1104/2008 and of Council Decision 2008/839/JHA. 
 
EN 13   EN • the adoption of the SIS II migration instruments recast 
• the non-functional Converter Syst em Solution Test 2 (SST2)  
• the SIRENE functional tests 
• the limited and global migration rehearsal 
• the adoption of a Commission Implemen ting Decision on the SIRENE Manual and 
other implementing measures for SIS II  
5. C ONCLUSIONS  
The intensive preparations for the last major testing rounds and subsequent data migration 
have culminated with the va lidation of the sec ond Milestone test a nd the start of the 
comprehensive test.  
All challenges encountered during these final testing phases of the project were addressed 
successfully, thanks to the over -riding cooperative approach be tween Member States and the 
Commission, allowing the SIS II project to remain  on track for the planned go-live in the first 
quarter of 2013. With considerable  progress achieved in terms of maturity of the system the 
ground has been prepared for three key actions to  be taken during the rest of 2012 in order to 
prepare for the migration between SIS1+ a nd SIS II. These are the completion of the 
comprehensive test, the SIRENE Functional test and the adoption of the migration 
instruments. 
 
EN 14   EN SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II) and Working Group Meetings 
Meetings held during the reporting period  
JANUARY 2012 
5, 11, 18, 24 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
25 SIS II National Project  Managers Meeting 
25 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
10, 17, 24, 31 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
FEBRUARY 2012 
1, 8, 15, 23, 
29 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
22 SIS II National Project  Managers Meeting 
22 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
7, 14, 21, 28 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
MARCH 2012 
6, 14, 22, 27 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
21 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
21 SIS II National Project  Managers Meeting 
6, 13, 20, 27 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
28 SIS II Migration Workshop 
 
APRIL 2012 
3, 11, 19, 25 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
10, 17, 24 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
MAY 2012 
 
EN 15   EN 2, 7, 10, 16, 
29 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
30 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
30 SIS II National Project  Managers Meeting 
31  Workshop on the SIS II Comprehensive Test execution 
8, 15, 22, 29 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
JUNE 2012 
13, 20, 26, 27 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
27 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
27 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
5, 12, 19, 26 SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II) and Working Group Meetings 
b) Meetings provisionally scheduled during the forthcoming reporting period 
JULY 2012 
4, 10, 18, 24  SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
26 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting) 
26 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
3, 10, 17, 24, 
31  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
AUGUST 2012 
1, 8, 22, 29 SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
7 , 14 , 21 , 28  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
 
EN 16   EN SEPTEMBER 2012 
5 , 12 , 19 , 
26  SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
27 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting)) 
27 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
4 , 11 , 18 , 
25  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
OCTOBER 2012  
3, 10 , 17 , 
24, 31  SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
26 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting)) 
26 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
2 , 9, 16 , 23 , 
30  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
NOVEMBER 2012 
7 , 14 , 21, 28  SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
29 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting)) 
29 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
6 , 13 , 20 , 
27  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group) 
 
DECEMBER 2012 
5 , 12 , 19  SIS II Global Programme Management Board 
20 SIS-VIS Committee (SIS II Technical Formation Meeting)) 
20 SIS II National Project Managers' Meeting 
4 , 11 , 18  SIS II TAG meeting (Test Advisory Group)