Opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation 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’ (COM(2003) 510 final - 2003/0198 (COD))
Date: 2004-02-25
Institutions: European Economic and Social Committee
Subjects: EU Member State, Schengen Information System, access to information, public service, vehicle registration

30.4.2004

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Official Journal of the European Union

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II

(Preparatory Acts)

EUROPEAN ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COMMITTEE

406TH PLENARY SESSION, 25 AND 26 FEBRUARY
the European Economic and Social
2004Opinion of

Committee on the ‘Proposal for a Regulation 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’

(COM(2003) 510 final - 2003/0198 (COD))

(2004/C 110/01)

On 16 September 2003, the Council decided to consult the European Economic and Social Committee,
under Article 95 of the Treaty establishing the European Economic Community, on the above-mentioned
proposal.

The Section for the Single Market, Production and Consumption, which was responsible for preparing the
Committee's work on the subject, adopted its opinion on 2 February 2004. The rapporteur was
Mr Barros Vale.

At its 406th plenary session (meeting of 25 February 2004) the European Economic and Social Committee
unanimously adopted the following opinion:

1. Introduction

1.1
The Schengen Convention, which is designed to permit
the free movement of people and goods, was signed in 1995.
The first signatories were Germany, France, Belgium, Luxem-
burg and the Netherlands, followed later by other EU countries,
with the exception of Ireland and the United Kingdom; Norway
and Iceland have also signed up to the agreement.

Although they have not signed the Schengen Conven-
1.2
tion on free movement, Ireland and the United Kingdom do
also take part in EU security cooperation measures, especially
in view of the reduction in security which may result from the
free movement of people and goods.

1.3
The Schengen Convention stipulates which authorities
have access to the Schengen Information System (SIS), as well
as the purposes for which the data concerned may be used.
The current text of the Convention does not allow vehicle
registration authorities to access the SIS.

The Commission is intending to amend the Convention
1.4
implementing the Schengen Agreement
in order to include
mechanisms in the legislation giving access rights to SIS data
on stolen vehicles and trailers, and on stolen blank official

documents and issued identity papers (passports, identity cards,
driving licences). The aim is to make it possible to check
whether vehicles presented for a second registration have been
stolen, misappropriated or
lost and also whether people
applying for a registration certificate are using stolen identity
or vehicle registration documents for this purpose.

1.5
This issue is all the more important given that around
nine thousand vehicles stolen every day (approximately one
every ten seconds); the number of requests submitted every day
for vehicle registration totals around fifteen million, six to
seven million of which involve second registration (1).

1.6
The Commission proposal has to be seen from a variety
of viewpoints, particularly justice, moves to counter fraud,
steps to strengthen the single market and transport policy.

2. General comments

2.1
The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC)
agrees with the Commission's view that, given the scale of
fraud and organised crime targeting such goods and equipment
and the documents involved, access to the SIS should be broa-
dened to include national authorities responsible for issuing
and checking the above-mentioned documents.

(1) Statistics

available

from: http://europa.eu.int/comm/energy_tran-

sport/etif/transport_means_road/...

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Official Journal of the European Union

30.4.2004

The Committee feels that

2.2
the Commission's aims in
amending the Schengen Agreement, as proposed here, are rele-
vant in that they enhance security and speed up justice proce-
dures, since data protection is guaranteed by the system.

2.3
The EESC would draw attention to the need to ensure
that the proposal under review is compatible with Member
States' domestic rules and regulations.

2.4
The SIS is clearly Community-oriented and can only be
used within the EEA (European Economic Area), as stipulated
in the Schengen Convention itself; the EESC feels that this
should continue to apply. It is a matter of concern to the EESC
that cooperation arrangements with non-Member States in this
sphere are poor, given that a large part of the traffic in stolen
and misappropriated vehicles in the European Union takes
place outside the Union's borders.

2.5
The EESC thinks that one of the ways of achieving this
might be through cooperation with INTERPOL (involving 181
countries), using the Automated Search Facility (ASF) and
EUROPOL; for these purposes, it would be enough to enter the
information into the SIS and the other two systems at the same
time. It is essential to enter this information swiftly, especially
into the SIS, since the vehicles concerned are moved out of the
EU's jurisdiction very quickly.

2.6
The Committee believes that Member States which are
not signatories to the Schengen Convention should be given
access to SIS data for this purpose, given that this is a security
issue.

2.7
According to the Commission, the new Member States
will only have access to SIS II data (in the new generation of
the Information System) at the end of 2006. The Committee
believes that these countries should be granted full access to
the SIS as quickly as possible; this entails clear advantages for
achieving the objectives pursued in applying the system.

Brussels, 25 February 2004.

2.8
The EESC is pleased that the proposal under review
considers the fact that various Member States have private
services
these private
services may obtain the information necessary to carry out
their work properly,
the public
authorities with access to the SIS, guaranteeing data protection.

responsible for vehicle registration;

indirectly through one of

2.9
The Committee deems it to be especially important to
secure mechanisms for restricting access to other information
in the system to the administrative authorities possessing SIS
access; out of a concern to safeguard the public's general rights,
such information must be reserved for the authorities specified
in Article 1 of the Schengen Convention.

2.10
The EESC welcomes the Commission's guarantee that
the solution found will have no financial impact on the EU's
budget, since the costs will be borne by the Member States.

2.11
The Committee also believes that statistical data on this
type of crime should be compiled, processed and publicised so
as to better organize the approach to tackling it.

3. Other comments

3.1
The Committee believes that the very existence of this
system and the easy access thereto granted to the authorities of
various Member States will constitute an incentive to allow
more free movement of vehicles within the Union, and will
place a responsibility on national authorities to abolish certain
kinds of domestic rules and regulations which make it difficult
for their own nationals to use vehicles registered in another
Member State.

3.2
Now that greater capacity is being introduced for moni-
toring and combating vehicle fraud and theft, the Commission
must provide Member States with incentives to dismantle rules
and regulations which make the use and movement of vehicles
registered in another Member State difficult; the reasons for
this are often purely tax-related and run counter to the provi-
sions of the single market.

The President

of the European Economic and Social
Committee

Roger BRIESCH