Procedures for amending the SIRENE Manual - Main contents

Document date	22-09-2003
Publication date	12-08-2009
Reference	12771/03
From	Presidency
To	Article 36 Committee (Mixed Committee EU/Iceland and Norway)
External link	original PDF
Original document in PDF

COUNCIL OF PUBLIC Brussels, 22 September 2003

THE EUROPEAN UNION

12771/03

LIMITE

SIRIS 88 COMIX 572

NOTE from : Presidency to : Article 36 Committee (Mixed Committee EU/Iceland and Norway) No. prev. doc. : 7619/03 SIRIS 31

7180/03 SIRIS 30 COMIX 143 7179/03 SIRIS 29 COMIX 142

Subject : Procedures for amending the SIRENE Manual

• 1. 

  The SIRENE Manual 1 is a set of instructions to operators in the SIRENE Bureaux of the States

applying the Schengen Acquis. It is mentioned in Council Decision 1999/435/EC i of 20 May

1999 as one of the elements of the Schengen acquis 2 .

• 2. 

  There is a clear need to amend this SIRENE Manual to adapt it to current practice and include new procedures that have been agreed upon since 1999 or will shortly be agreed, such as the Q- form concerning victims of misused identity, the practical handling of the European Arrest

  Warrant, the consequences of the modifications to the provisions of the Schengen Convention set out in the Spanish initiatives concerning the introduction of new functions in the SIS, and other minor operational issues.

1 As approved in Executive Committee decision SCH/Com-ex (99) 5 of 28 April 1999

(published in OJ L 239 of 22.9.2000, p. 457) and as (partially) published in OJ C 38 of 17.2.2003, p. 1.

2 OJ L 176 of 10.7.1999, p. 1.

• 3. 

  Upon request of the Article 36 Committee of 19 December 2001, the Legal Service of the

Council delivered an opinion in March 2002 (doc. 7205/02 JUR 105 SIRENE 18 COMIX 192), giving comments on the issues to be addressed concerning the revision of the SIRENE Manual.

• 4. 

  Based on this opinion, the Hellenic Republic introduced in March 2003 two initiatives with a view to adopting a Council Regulation and a Council Decision on the revision of the SIRENE Manual (see documents 7179/03 SIRIS 29 COMIX 142 and 7180/03 SIRIS 30 COMIX 143). These initiatives propose that the SIRENE Manual be amended by the Commission, assisted by a committee of representatives of Member States, in accordance with the regulatory procedure.

• 5. 

  Initial discussions at the SIS/SIRENE Working Party meetings of 12/13 May, 3 June, 3 July and 18 September 2003 have shown that several delegations find that the amendment of the SIRENE Manual should not, or at least not entirely, be done through comitology procedure. The debate at the level of the SIS/SIRENE Working Party is has reached an impasse.

• 6. 

  The European Parliament has delivered an opinion suggesting that parts of the SIRENE Manual can be updated through comitology procedure, while other parts should be amended through

  legislative acts. Some delegations have made similar remarks.

• 7. 

  The Article 36 Committee is therefore requested to advise in this matter, knowing that:

  • - 

    the amendment of the SIRENE Manual becomes ever more urgent as it is increasingly outdated compared to current and short-term future practice;

  • - 

    for transparency and practical reasons, the SIRENE Manual should remain a unique document, to be amended through one procedure only;

  • - 

    the alternative procedure to amend the SIRENE Manual is to submit legislative initiatives setting out the entire Manual; this would entail a detailed examination of the text both at the Council and at the European Parliament, as well as the need to go through the legislative procedure for every future amendment.

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