Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am glad we kick-off the new year of work by a discussion together.
The work on our policies continues and I think we will have to meet a lot. But today, we dedicate the discussion on the latest developments on our work on interoperability, and, closely linked to that, our proposal to strengthen eu-LISA.
I don’t have to repeat the importance of smooth information exchange between - Member States, - EU Agencies, -law enforcement and - judicial authorities, - as well as intelligence services.
This is a must - to effectively tackle the security challenges of today and of the future and to live up to our citizens’ expectations.
We need to build an environment of trust and ask from our Member States to demonstrate this trust: without this element we will never achieve a genuine and effective Security Union. The attacks in Barcelona and Turku, London, Stockholm and Berlin before, show beyond any doubt.
In several of these attacks, a more timely and effective sharing of information could have saved lives.
We already have a range of instruments and information-sharing systems
at the disposal of our security, border and migration authorities to ensure this: the Schengen and Visa Information Systems,Eurodac, Europol's systems, Prüm and others.
We are rapidly also implementing our EU PNR system. You know these all very well.
I have constantly called on Member States to fully exploit the potential of these systems.
We are working intensively to support Member States with funding, expertise and best practice.
In the last year, owing partly to the hard lessons of the terrorist attacks, there has been a steady increase in the use of these systems.
The Schengen Information System in particular.
But more needs to be done. And when I say more, I do not mean more in terms of quantity: we do not want a proliferation of information systems.
We want to better use the systems that we have, and to close the gaps that we see in our information architecture in Europe.
We came forward with a package of proposals to strengthen and improve the Schengen Information System last December and I know that the work of Mr Coelho on this is progressing.
We proposed a new Entry-Exit System, which will completely modernise our external border management.
I would like to thank Mr. Diaz de Mera and the team of the shadow rapporteurs for the agreement reached with the Council and look forward to the final adoption in October.
We proposed the new European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS) to allow us the advance screening of visa-free travellers to the EU.
This is another key piece of the security puzzle, because at the moment we do not have this information.
I know that Ms Gal and you all are working intensively on this and I urge you to move swiftly to its adoption.
Finally, last June we proposed to improve the current European Criminal Records Information System for third-country nationals to give police, prosecutors and judges a stronger tool against cross-border crime and terrorism.
Now, on Interoperability: The co-existence of the existing and proposed systems is, however, not enough.
What is the usefulness of all these systems if they are isolated silos, which do not speak to each other?
Our information needs to be interoperable to be useful.
The dots need to be connected both at national and European level.
Law enforcement, border guards, intelligence services they all need accurate information from across our information systems to make the right decisions at the right time.
Interoperability also needs to address the limited access by law enforcement authorities to non-law enforcement information systems.
This deficit currently hinders their efforts to prevent, investigate, detect or prosecute criminal offences.
The new ETIAS system needs interoperability to function with the Entry Exit System, the Schengen and Visa Information System, Eurodac and Europol data as we proposed it.
Throughout 2016, the expert group we created looked at these questions and the various options of interoperability.
It looked at our existing and future systems, Europol and Interpol databases, Prüm and other instruments to close the gaps in information sharing.
It confirmed that we need to set out a new approach to the management of data for borders and security, where all relevant centralised EU information systems would be interoperable.
It also confirmed that it is possible to achieve this result in full respect of fundamental rights, especially data protection. This is key.
We have stressed that the individual systems should respect the principles of necessity and proportionality.
They should keep their specific data protection provisions, with specific rules on who can access the data, purpose limitation rules for each category of data, data minimisation and dedicated data retention rules. We are not building a big brother system.
Interoperability should not be perceived as a challenge to fundamental rights.
On the contrary, it serves to protect our fundamental rights to safety, security and mobility.
It is an opportunity to offer more robust and timely protection, with a much more modern system to manage our information.
But safeguards on fundamental rights are essential, and we will need to ensure that they are maintained when we further work on this issue.
This is also why the Fundamental Rights Agency and the European Data Protection Supervisor are closely associated in this work.
Technical meetings have already started with you and the Council to reach a common understanding on the necessary steps for the interoperability of our information systems by 2020.
I am confident that by the end of this year we will be able to put a solid proposal on the table to achieve the interoperability of our information systems.
I would like to thank as well Mr Garkov and his team at eu-LISA for their contribution to this work.
eu-LISA will be a cornerstone of our work on interoperability.
The Agency already plays a crucial role in the management of existing information systems such as the Schengen and Visa Information Systems and of future systems such as Entry-Exit or ETIAS, when these will be adopted.
That is why in June, we presented a proposal for a revised mandate for the Agency.
The proposal reflects the Agency’s important role in ensuring high data quality.
It also reflects the fact that the Agency will host the new information systems that I mentioned, with the necessary resources to fulfil these new specific tasks on interoperability.
Honourable Members,
Dear colleagues,
To ensure the security of our citizens, we need to maximise the benefits of information systems.
We need to ensure that the border guards and law enforcement officials have the necessary information at their disposal at the right moment.
I am confident that eu-LISA’s new mandate will contribute to this objective and I am looking forward to working with you on this proposal too.
Thank you for your attention.