• Home /
• Statewatch Database /
• Schengen: Governments forced to publish the Schengen "acquis"Schengen Executive Committee meetingand German governmentperspectives(feature)

Schengen: Governments forced to publish the Schengen "acquis"Schengen Executive Committee meetingand German governmentperspectives(feature)

01 September 1996

The Danish and Norwegian governments have published the contents of the Schengen "acquis after sustained pressure from MPs and the media. On 1 May the five Nordic countries - Denmark, Sweden, Finland became "observers" in Schengen and the two non-EU states - Norway and Iceland became non-membership "observers". This first step to join the Schengen agreement meant that it has to be ratified by each of the five national parliaments before it can come into effect. MPs in the national parliaments were given copies of the 1990 Schengen agreement but at a meeting in the Danish parliament in April it emerged they had not been given the Schengen "acquis" - namely all the policies and measures agreed by the existing members of Schengen prior to their "observer" status being agreed. The existing nine members are: the original five members: Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, plus Spain and Portugal who joined later and Greece and Italy who have joined but have not yet ratified the agreement. The Danish government finally released the full list of documents in the Schengen "acquis" early in September and the Norwegian government followed suite a couple of weeks later. The list is 18 pages long and contains 172 documents covering all aspects of the agreement which itself has 142 Articles. Five of the documents are classified a "Confidential" in whole or part and are not being released except to MPs. The include the key documents on the Schengen Information System and the "SIRENE Manual" which detailed the exchange of data on individuals. Copies of the "acquis" are available from Statewatch (see below). Schengen Executive Committee meeting, 17 October The Schengen Executive Committee met in Luxembourg on 17 October under the Luxembourg Presidency. A timetable was set for the formal signing of the Schengen Agreement by the governments of the five Nordic countries at the next meeting of the Executive Committee on 19 December. As soon as the signature is dry these countries will have to pay their share of the setup and running costs of the Schengen Information System (SIS) even though the parliamentary ratification process - which will certainly takes months and maybe years - has hardly started (see Statewatch, vol 6 no 3). The meeting reviewed the progress of three other states who have signed the agreement but their parliaments have yet to ratify it - Italy, Greece and Austria. The meeting "welcomed" the declarations by the three governments that they reaffirmed their political will to fulfil the pre-conditions laid down for all Schengen countries. As Greece and Italy have to get data protection laws through before their parliaments can consider the Schengen agreement itself their participation is quite some way off. Austria, whose government signed up in April 1995, is being put on the spot by the German Bavarian Lande (regional government) over its ability to maintain border controls up to Schengen standards. Interior Minister Gunther Beckstein questioned whether Austria was capable of securing its frontiers against "illegal" immigrants from its six bordering countries - Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Slovenia, Italy and Switzerland. Last year, said the Interior Ministry, 11,500 people were held by the German police on the Austrian border. Although the Schengen agreement is based on the removal of controls at the border Bavaria, like other Schengen states, is now planning a 30-kilometre "security zone" inside the Bavarian-Austrian border where police will have powers to stop cars and carry out random searches. The Austrian authorities say they already have 2,000 police ready for this work and plan to add another 1,000. Despite the lack of progress in getting parliamentary ratification of the Schengen agreement in these three countries the current work programme, prepared by the Schengen Central Group, includes linking them up to the SIS. It says that for Italy and Greece this will