This report concerns the development of the Second Generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) -Progress Report (July‑December 2008).

This progress report describes the work carried out by the Commission in the second semester of 2008 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It constitutes a test status report as foreseen by Council Regulation (EC) No 189/2008 and Council Decision 2008/173/EC on the tests of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).

The SIS II Project is divided into three phases:

(i) phase 1 is concerned with system design and was completed prior to this reporting period;

(ii) phase 2 deals with development and testing of the central system which has been problematic during this reporting period;

(iii) phase 3 addresses final test and migration activities from the currently used SIS 1+ to SIS II.

In the early months of 2008 the Commission focussed on revising the SIS II schedule. Unfortunately, despite all preventative measures taken by the Commission to ensure that the tests should be conducted as planned (with an end date of September 2009), the main development contractor for SIS II encountered significant problems in the central system. The immediate consequence was the suspension of the Operational Systems Test (OST) - which verifies that the central system can operate with a set of connected national systems - on 4 September 2008. The main problems were as follows:

certain tests verifying data consistency between the data stored in the central system and the national systems were inconclusive; problems arose in the transmission of messages between the central system and the national systems (some messages went missing whilst others were duplicated); the generation and loading, within the central systems or within the national systems, of the large amounts of data necessary for performance tests proved impossible within the timescale which had been anticipated.

The Commission immediately escalated these matters to the highest level with the company leading the main development contract. The OST was resumed on 5 November and ended on 17 December. A preliminary analysis indicates that despite the significant improvements achieved during the autumn, the exit criteria for the OST (i.e. zero blocking issues and zero major bugs) have not been reached.

The necessity to discontinue the OST in September, the subsequent delays related to the remediation period of 20 days and the additional testing period, have led to the exhaustion of all existing margins in the project plan, thereby implying that a rescheduling of the project is necessary. Such re-scheduling should, however, be deferred until the completion of the analysis of OST results.

The Operational System Test demonstrates that the number of bugs in the central SIS II reduced between November and December 2008 and that the SIS II functionalities work. However, during this phase, a number of problems have persisted, and need to be resolved in the area of data consistency (a mechanism to ensure the equivalence of data between the national systems and the central system), performance and robustness of the system. The facts that some of the bugs are still present and that more time is needed for their resolution show that the date for migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II, set for September 2009, is no longer realistic.

In this situation, it is appropriate to implement immediately a working method that ensures a global approach to the project, including the concepts of thorough analysis, effective test methodology management and monitoring. These elements are covered in the repair plan, comprehensive project management and global testing approach initiatives implemented by the Commission with the support of the Council.

Priorities for the next reporting period :

Setting up and implementing an analysis and repair plan to address the failure of the OST : in order to accurately identify the underlying causes of remaining problems affecting the system, the Commission will complete an in-depth analysis of SIS II (root cause analysis), building on the work already carried out in the final months of 2008 on contingency and mitigation options; Global programme management approach : in order to ensure the necessary consistency between the development of the central system and national systems, the Commission will implement a global programme management structure encompassing central and national developments, bringing together Member States and users and Commission project managers as well as the contractors; Testing : the tests run since April 2008 have highlighted some shortcomings in the current test plan. To address this problem, the Commission will design, together with Member States' and users' experts, a new test plan based on a global approach to testing, which would guarantee a full involvement of Member States and users; Migration Development : the development of the converter for migration will continue during the next reporting period; Operational Management : Negotiations on the second contract with Austria, dealing with training and other services before go-live, and the completion of the job profile for the Backup Central Unit Administrator in Salzburg by France, will be discussed between the Commission, France and Austria; Security and Data Protection : Bilateral meetings between European Data Protection Supervisor staff and the Commission services take place on a regular basis to discuss issues related to SIS II. In the EDPS document "Inventory 2009", it is reported that preparations are taking place for the entry into force of SIS II, which includes the supervisory role of the EDPS.

COM(2009)0133
EUR-Lex

This progress report deals with the work undertaken by the Commission between January and June 2008 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It is presented to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation (EC) No 2424/2001 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).

The report focuses in particular on progress made on the testing of the SIS II system. To recap, the SIS II Project is divided into three phases:

phase 1 was concerned with system design and was completed prior to this reporting period; phase 2 deals with development and testing of the Central System which is a significant part of the current work load, and is likely to be completed by the end of 2008; phase 3 addresses final test and migration activities from the currently used SIS 1+ to SIS II. The preparatory work for migration is already underway.

Project status: following the successful implementation of SISone4ALL and the subsequent lifting of borders of the new Member States, the JHA Council in February 2008 concluded that SIS II should be re-scheduled in such a way that the Council can anticipate the start of SIS II operations by September 2009 . In the early months of this reporting period the Commission services, in very close co operation with the Member States experts and the 'Friends of SIS II' (the group of Member States in charge of following the implementation of SIS II in the Member States, comprising the Czech Republic, Germany, Spain, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Finland, Sweden and Norway) focussed on revising the SIS II schedule. During the preparation of this timetable, a number of open issues related to SIS II schedule were identified as potentially time consuming and / or implied other significant risks (in particular, migration).

Migration from SIS to SIS II: the Commission (with the participation of SIS1+ countries) will ensure that the central elements of SIS II and the connections with national systems will have been tested and will function by the end of 2008. In 2009 the central SIS II will be tested in its entirety with the national applications. At the technical level, there is consensus on the general approach for the migration from SIS 1+ to SIS II, which is to perform a one-shot switchover of the national systems. However, the success of SISone4All requires the migration of many more Member States / users than originally planned.

The Council on 28 February 2008 confirmed a migration approach from SIS 1+ to SIS II that provides a fall-back possibility with a gradual migration to remedy unexpected problems and, for that purpose, invited the Commission to provide a converter , to be used for a very limited period of time, linking SIS 1+ and SIS II to ensure that the SIS can continue functioning in any scenario.

Testing Central SIS II: the System Solution Test (SST) was designed to verify that the Central SIS II on the central site is compliant with the technical specification. These tests, conducted without national systems, were completed in December 2007, and accepted in early 2008.

There are currently three types of testing being undertaken with the participation of Member States / users:

the Connectivity Test checks the ability of the SIS II National System to connect to the SIS II Central System (on 30 June 2008, the state of play was as follows: 24 Member States and users had completed the Informal Connectivity Tests: AT, DE, PT, LU, EL, IT, SI, SK, IS, FI, NO, HU, NL, CZ, LT, DK, ES, CY, SE, BE, PL, EE, MT and LV); the Compliance Test checks the interactions between the SIS II National System and the SIS II Central System for each national system separately, based on a set of pre-defined test cases agreed with the Member States (18 Member States are currently participating: a first group comprising 11 Member States ( SE, NO, PT, IT, FI, HU, EL, NL, CY, DE and AT) have to a large degree completed compliance testing; a second group of 7 Member States(DK, LT, EE, ES, IS, LU and LV) have recently commenced Compliance Testing and those remaining are scheduled to commence this task shortly. The target completion date for all Member States is October 2008; the Operational Systems Test (OST) tests the Central System with a set of connected national systems. This stage of testing involves actual Member States and users, instead of simulators. This testing phase commenced, on 21 May 2008 with 9 Member States / Users (AT, CY, DE, IT, NL, PT, SE, EL and NO) participating in the OST functional test. Although the OST is scheduled to be completed at the end of August 2008, concerns about the stability of the central system are becoming apparent.

Operational management: the preparations for operational management remain on track taking into account the synergies between SIS and VIS management. Various SIS II service contracts are yet to be completed with the national authorities hosting the main system (France) and the business continuity system (Austria) for a transitional period until the long-term management of SIS II is established. The second contract with France concerning provision of staff at the central site and training of staff in SIS II operations has been signed and negotiations on the third contract concerning activities to be carried out by the French authorities in the run up to go-live will commence shortly.

Financial management: the total appropriations for SIS II activities provided for in the 2008 General Budget amount to €26,620,000. A financing decision with a total budget of € 19,000,000 for SIS II (operating expenditure of the Schengen Information System and other operating expenditure which may result from this incorporation) and € 7,620,000 for SIS 1+ (installation of a communication infrastructure for SIS 1+ and operation and management of a communication infrastructure for SIS 1+) was adopted by the Commission on 21 December 2007. As the budget of 7,620,000 for SIS 1+ will not be used for this activity which has been taken over by the Council at the beginning of 2008, the amount has been transferred to SIS II for additional activities requested by the Council. At the time of drafting this report, 54.6% of the total SIS II appropriations have been committed and payments corresponding to 27.31% of payment appropriations have been made .

Conclusions: The development phase of the SIS II project remains a challenging task. Tests to ensure the connectivity and compliance between the Central SIS II with the national SIS systems have commenced. The key challenges at this point are to ensure the timely development of the converter for migration and the continuation of the various testing regimes.

For the period covered by the next report, the Commission intends to concentrate on testing the whole of the SIS II to check whether the performance is at least equivalent to that of the SIS 1+. Technical discussions are under way as to how test results can be best evaluated.

COM(2008)0710
EUR-Lex

COM(2008)0239
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report prepared by the Commission in the second semester of 2007 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). To recall, the SIS II project was divided into three phases. Phase 1, now completed, concerned system design. Phase 2 concerns development and testing of the Central System – and forms part of the current work load. Phase 3 concerns the migration of data from SIS 1+ to the SIS II system. This report also assesses potential risks, financial operations and project management as well as certain implementing measures.

Progress during the period under review: the Central Unit (CU) and the Backup Central Unit (BCU) have been accessible since early July 2007. All Member States have had their main sites and the vast majority of back-up sites connected to the s-Testa network since November 2007. As of December 2007, 19 Member States managed to complete the basic tests for connection to the SIS II network, of which 14 have moved on to informally testing their national systems against the central system. Five of these Member States (IT, PT, SE, NL, HU) have volunteered to assist the Commission with further testing of the central system and are therefore at the most advanced to date in terms of testing the compliance of their national systems with the central system. Four Member States (UK,EE, BE, FR) and Europol are in the process of doing the basic tests. Four Member States and Eurojust are yet to start the basic tests (LV, IE, MT, PL).

One further, important development, during the period under review, has been preparing the migration of data from SIS 1+ to SIS II. The choice was between a high risk option – the “overnight option”, whereby the switch-over would take place within eight hours; and a low risk lengthier migration period of between one to two months. In December 2007, however, Member States’ experts agreed on the lower risk approach. Thus, at the start of operations, SIS 1+ will not be switched off but SIS 1+ and SIS II will operate in parallel for a limited period. This fall-back plan is needed in case any Member State experiences a problem during the planned eight hour switchover. A gradual migration, during a very short time period (1-2 months) can provide this fall back. On a separate note, Switzerland has indicated that it wishes to join SIS 1+ using the SISone4All solution. It may be “technically” ready by May 2008.

The French authorities have confirmed their commitment to the operational management of SIS II during the transitional period – representing the time between SIS II going live and the establishment of the management authority that will be entrusted with the long term management of SIS II. The first of a series of four service contracts was signalled in July 2007, covering the provision of serviced work space in prefabricated buildings within the Strasbourg complex as from November 2007. The Commission is covering the provision of staff at the central site that will be trained in SIS II operations as from 01/04/2008.

Management: in accordance with best practice, monitoring potential risks is a continuous. The report gives an overview of the major risks identified at the end of this reporting period, which could have a potentially negative impact on the project’s schedule:

· insufficient number of Member States read to commence the test phase;

· delays in setting up the practical arrangements regarding operational management of the Central SIS II;

· uncertainties linked to the Test Decision;

· risk of delay of the go-live date as margins build into the SIS II project have been reduced;

· time for correction of issues being limits, especially after the major central SIS II tests and national compliance tests have been completed;

· unpredictable duration of SIS II final tests (global tests);

· uncertainty on how migration impacts on project schedule; and

· new SIS users close to the migration process.

Financial Management: the total appropriations for SIS II activities provided for in the 2007 General Budget amount to EUR 20 000 000 (of which EUR 5 000 000) were entered into reserve). A financing decision with a total budget of EUR 19 000 000 was adopted by the Commission on 22 February 2007. The main components of expenditure during 2007 were site preparation, working on the network, preparing for operations, external assistance for developing monitoring and quality control, security audit, studies, preparatory work for the SIS II information campaign and changes to SIS II due to the impact of SISone4All. 70.09% of the total SIS II appropriations have been committed and payments corresponding to 35.73% of payment appropriations have been made.

Priorities for next reporting period: for the next reporting period priority will be given to testing the Operational System Tests (OST), which tests the Central System with a set of connected national systems. The Commission is relying on a number of volunteer Member States to take part in the first testing of the central system against their national systems. Preparation for this phase commenced in mid December 2007 and the tests are scheduled to be completed by May 2008. Preparation for migration continues, with technical specifications of the identified migration approach having to be worked out.

Conclusions: the Central SIS II has completed the first phase of tests. Member States have begun testing their national systems. In spite of some initial difficulties (which have had some impact on planning) a stable network between the Member States and the two sites hosting the Central SIS II has been established. The first operational management contract with France has been signed and the second contract with Austria is due to be signed shortly. The project has, however, encountered certain set-back over the six months in question. Most significantly the negative opinion from the SIS II regulatory committee on the draft Commission Decision concerning tests.

SEC(2008)0552
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report on work carried out by the Commission in the first semester of 2007 covering the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It sets out the timetable for future activities. It has been presented by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation 2424/2001/EC.

Achievements in the period under review : Following the adoption of the two Regulations on SIS II at the end of 2006, the SIS II Decision was adopted by the Council on 12 June. Negotiations for the SIS II legal framework took longer than expected, which caused some difficulties for the development of SIS II, particularly concerning preparation for the fundamental design of documents and for the development of the national and central systems. Following the go-ahead for the SISOne4all project in December 2006, a revised schedule for SIS II was prepared, taking account of the impact of the SISOne4all project on SIS II. The revised schedule foresees a target date of 17 December 2008 for making the SIS II system available to all SIS1+ users.

After complex and lengthy negotiations with the French authorities throughout the first Semester of 2007, the French authorities have confirmed their commitment to participating in operational management during the transitional period. The Factory Acceptance tests of the SIS II central system were completed on schedule and preparations for subsequent phases of testing are in progress. There has been a very positive response from Member States for participating in the Operational System Tests (11volunteers, well above the minimum requirement for 6 volunteers to allow the tests to go ahead). During the reporting period, concerns were expressed that parallel efforts to implement both SISone4all and SIS II may lead to delays in certain Member States' national SIS II projects, due to resource constraints. The Council has stressed on several occasions that SISone4all is a temporary solution and that priority must also be given to the development of SIS II.

Development of the central system: As indicated in the previous report, phase 1 was contractually closed at the end of 2006. This entailed completion of an Interface Control Document (ICD), which described how Member States can connect to and use the SIS II, Further, the Detailed Technical Specifications (DTS) describing how the system is to be built and tested and how Member States will communicate with the central system, was also finalised. On 20 April, the Commission delivered updated versions of the ICD (version 2.5) and DTS (DTS 1.3.0). A Change Management Board, has been created, the purpose of which is to give an opinion to the SIS II Committee on issues related to corrections and changes in the technical specifications and implementation of SIS II.

Priorities for the next reporting period:

In future, top priority will be given to connecting local SIS II networks on time. This will allow for the next wave testing involving the Member States to go ahead, on schedule.

The Compliance Test is due to be finalised with at least six Operational System Tests (OST) and the System Solution Tests due to be completed by mid October 2007. The OST with at least six users is scheduled to start in November 2007.

Preparations for the operational management for SIS II will carry on, including negotiating service contracts with France and Austria. Work with the main development contractor will also continue, with a view to completing a smooth transfer to French (and, where applicable, Austrian) authorities.

The draft decision to define the scope and responsibilities of tests, with Member State involvement, is due to be submitted for adoption by the Commission during the forthcoming reporting period, following completion of consultations and comitology procedures.

Work on the SIRENE manual, the implementing rules and the proposed long term solution for operational management will be continued.

To conclude, in the first half of the year development work continued on schedule and the initial phases of testing such as the Factory Acceptance Tests were completed successfully. There has been a positive response from Member States volunteering to participate in the Operational System Tests. With regard to infrastructure, the first service contract with France for the provision of fully equipped and serviced workspace for the project teams was due to be signed shortly after the reporting period.

SEC(2008)0035
EUR-Lex

SEC(2007)0408
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report on the work carried out by the Commission in the second half of 2005 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It also sets out the timetable for future activities. It is the seventh report presented by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation 2424/2001/EC.

The Commission has been given a mandate to develop SIS II together with the SIS II Committee, which is composed of Member State representatives. In light of the project risks associated with the development of SIS II a new clear reporting method has been devised.

Progress during in the second half of 2005:

The SIS II project was in phase 1 in the second half of 2005 – i.e. the Detailed Design of the system, whereby all the documents needed from a technical perspective need to be delivered. The target date for completion of the central system is the end of October 2006 at which point the central system becomes available for testing with the national systems. The contractor is expected to produce a set of deliverables, which include:

- The Interface Control Document (ICD). This describes how the Member States can connect to the use of SIS II. In the second half of 2005 the ICD was being finalised.

- Detailed Specifications (DTS). This contains the technical specification describing how the system should be built and tested and how the Member States will communicate with the centralised system. During the second half of 2005 the DTS was being finalised. It was not possible to deliver on procedures needed to make changes to the content of the ICD and DTS. The Commission is of the view that the functionality of the changes had not been elaborated to an acceptable standard by the main development contractor. Finalisation of this matter is expected in 2006.

- Security deliverables: i) Protection Profile; ii) Security Plan and iii) Risk Analysis: A comprehensive set of security measures has been produced. The Commission intends to submit them to the comitology framework by early 2006.

In other matters:

- Arrangements with France and Austria regarding the site of the SIS II Central Unit (FR) and the Business Community Unit (AUS) were close to completion by the end of 2005. Any outstanding issues regarding the sites, it is hoped, will be completed in the course of 2006.

- A call for tender for the network services was issued with the aim of having the contract for services concluded at the beginning of 2006.

- A new reporting mechanism has been put in place to provide regular and detailed updates on the status of the national projects. This will allow for a clearer analysis of the state of play. The state of play at the end of 2005 varied from Member State to Member State . Only half of the Member States were on schedule to meet the project deadline.

- The Commission and Member States made progress on testing compliance of the central system with the national systems. The Test Plan should be finalised in early 2006.

- The migration and integration plans have not been finalised although completion is foreseen in early 2006.

- The Commission hopes to adopt two legislative proposals by mid 2006. They are firstly, on the establishment, operation and use of the second-generation SIS II and secondly on specific SIS II access to data for Member State authorities for issuing vehicle registration certificates. (See CNS/2005/0103 and CNS/2005/0104).

Results expected during the next reporting period (January to June 2006):

The development of the central system should have made significant progress and be nearing completion. Site preparations should be finished and the technical infrastructure installed. The contract for network services should be finalised early in 2006 and the required network connections should be at an advanced stage. Member States should have made important progress on their respective national projects and be in the process of developing their national systems.

Commission project management:

Currently, the project is within the original budget forecast. Budget appropriations for SIS II have been secured from 2005 until the end of the project. Synergy with the Visa Information System (VIS) has been achieved by combining the same call for tender and sharing the same technical infrastructure. As far as the risk analysis is concerned, the Commission has identified five major risks. Firstly, possible changes to the functionalities of the system due to amendments of the proposed legal instruments on SIS II, which could impact on the system’s design. Secondly, risks related to the migration and integration of national systems. The unavailability of one national system would impact on the entire project. Thirdly, no finalisation of the network services contract. This would result in the communications infrastructure not being set up in accordance with the planned time-table. Fourthly, the risk of changes to the current SIS after 15 October 2005 the time at which the contractor should have begun developing the adapter needed to execute the migration plan. Fifthly, the lack of “time buffers” for planning the central part.

To conclude, the last six months of 2005 marked progress towards the completion of key design deliverables. Improvement was made on the status of national preparations and on risk associated issues. Over the next period, the central project should move one gear higher into the “development and deployment” phases.

SEC(2006)0618
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report on the work carried out by the Commission in the first half of 2005 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It also sets out the timetable for future activities.

It is the sixth report presented by the Commission in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation 2424/2001/EC on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) .

The Council has mandated responsibility for developing SIS II to the Commission, assisted by the SIS II Committee composed of representatives of the Member States.

Project Status: The report describes the achievements in the period under review (January to June 2005) and the results expected during the next reporting period (July to December 2005). It points out that on 18 November 2004, the Court of First Instance ordered, as an interim measure, the suspension of the contract until further notice and decided on an expedited procedure following the application from Capgemini (Nederland N.V.) for the annulment of the Commission services’ decision to award the SIS II/VIS contract to a consortium led by Steria, France, and Hewlett Packard, Belgium.

On 14 February 2005, Capgemini (Nederland NV) withdrew its application. The Court of First Instance therefore closed the entire procedure and ordered the applicant to pay the expenses.

During the suspension period, Commission Services have worked intensively on this Court case and on taking measures to minimise the risk of not delivering SIS II by the final date (March 2007). Commission services carried on working closely with Member State experts, but due to the suspension order could not have any contact with the contractor. A total of seven working sessions with Member State experts were organised between 9 February and 10 March on the definition of messages, transport protocols and security.

The SIS II Project is divided into three phases. Phase 1 - Detailed Design - will deliver all the documents necessary to fully describe the SIS II from a technical perspective. The system will be developed and deployed during phase 2 – Development. Finally, during phase 3 – Migration and Integration – Member States will connect their national systems to the new SIS II central database. The project was in phase 1 during the current reporting period.

As regards the next reporting period, phase 1 should be completed by December 2005. This means that all project deliverables for phase 1 will have reached their final completion stage. Phase 2, the development phase, will begin as soon as is technically and contractually possible and will lead to a three-month overlap of phases 1 and 2.

The project is currently within the original budget forecast. Budget appropriations for SIS II have been secured from 2005 until the end of the project.

Synergy between SIS II and VIS has been achieved by having both projects combined in the same call for tender and sharing the same technical infrastructure.

The report discusses the way in which risk analysis is carried out. The major risks for the moment are currently:

-significant changes to the functioning of the system due to amendments of the proposed legal instruments on SIS II requiring major revisions to the system design;

-a risk related to the migration and integration of national systems, as the unavailability of one national system would impact the entire project;

-that the current system would still undergo changes after the date of 15 October when the contractor has already started the development of the adaptor which is required to execute the migration plan;

-the lack of “time buffers” in the planning for the development of the central part.

The Commission concludes that the first six months of 2005 were characterised by unexpected contract suspension which significantly disrupted both work and planning, followed by a heavy work programme to kick-start the SIS II design phase. The next six months will also be crucial: upon completion of the key design deliverables, the central project should move into the system development

and deployment phases. In parallel with the central project, national preparations should have progressed substantially by the end of 2005.

SEC(2005)1493
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report on the work carried out by the Commission in the second half of 2004 on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It also sets out the timetable for future activities. It is the fifth report presented by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation 2424/2001/EC.

Achievements in the period under review (June to December 2004) : On 13 September 2004, Commission services decided to award the SIS II/VIS contract to a consortium led by Steria France and Hewlett Packard Belgium and the contract was signed on 22 October 2004. On 15 November, Commission services were informed that Capgemini (Nederland NV), who was second in the tendering procedure, had applied for the annulment of the decisions to reject their offer and to award the contract to another tenderer (principal case), together with judicial interim relief, in particular to suspend the execution of the contract (procedure for interim measures) to the Court of First Instance. The Court ordered the suspension of the contract until further notice and decided on an expedited procedure in the court case. Commission Services have worked intensively on this court case and on taking all measures to minimise the risk of not delivering SIS II by the final date (March 2007). The measures taken by the Commission Services during the relatively short period of interruption due to the court case have made it possible to keep the final project completion date unaffected.

SIS II Project – Detailed Design (Phase 1) : The SIS II Project is divided into three phases. Phase 1 - Detailed Design - will deliver all the necessary documents to fully describe the SIS II from a technical perspective. The system will be developed and deployed during phase 2 – Development. Finally, during phase 3 – Migration and Integration – Member States will connect their national systems to the new SIS

II central database. The contractor’s first task has been to develop a master project plan - a timeframe for the whole SIS II project. A key element for the drafting of this master plan was the approach to migration and integration of existing and new Member States. Member States have agreed, in principle, on a four-step migration and integration scenario. In the first step, the new central SIS II database will be implemented and loaded with data from the current database. Member States currently using SIS, will remain connected to the old database. During the second step, each Member State , currently using

SIS, will connect to the new database via a device called an “adaptor”, which will allow the new database to be used without any modification of the national systems. This will permit each Member State to adapt its national systems at its own pace. During the third step, all Member States currently using SIS, will stop using the adaptor at the same time and connect their own national system to the new central SIS II database. Finally, the fourth step, foresees those Member States using the SIS for the first time connecting their national system to the new central SIS II database.

This four-step scenario is both workable for Member States and the Commission and reduces risk of failure. It is planned to obtain the formal opinion of the SIS II Committee on the migration and integration scenario in 2005 under the management procedure. On the basis of this scenario, a draft version of the master project plan was quickly delivered by the contractor. However the suspension of the contract has stopped the Commission services from further reviewing this document, which had not yet reached a level of completeness to make it suitable for planning purposes.

SIS II Functions : The functions to be available in SIS II are defined in the conclusions of the Council of 14 June 2004. These functions are the basis for the detailed specifications and design of SIS II.

Further discussions on functions have continued in the Council working groups. Commission services have repeatedly pointed out that in order to keep the deadline for the start of operations (March 2007), new functions will be treated as change requests to be implemented after the go-live date of SIS II.

Feasibility Study on stolen cultural goods in SIS II: the study undertaken indicated that the additional work might negatively impact the SIS II development schedule if an attempt is made to include it from the outset. Commission services have recommended not toinclude the alerts on stolen cultural goods in SIS II.

National planning and coordination : In October 2004, Commission services also formally invited each Member State to appoint a full time project manager for the SIS II project. The nomination of a project manager in each Member State is a fundamental condition for progressing with national preparations. Not all Member States have yet been able to indicate that such an appointment has taken place.

Call for Tender for Assistance : A call for tender was launched for the selection of a contractor who will assist the Commission with the acceptance procedures and in-depth quality checks of SIS II project deliverables. The contract signature is currently scheduled for January 2005.

Results expected in the next reporting period (January until June 2005) : All necessary measures will be taken in order to compensate for the delays that were incurred due to the Court Case on the delivery of some key deliverables.

Risk Analysis : The major risks for the moment are (1) delays in project progress due to the suspension of the contract and (2) the delays on the Member State side as regards the preparation of the adopted migration scenario.

SIS II Committee Meetings : As a result of t he Agreement between the EU, the EC and the Swiss Confederation on the latter's association with the Schengen acquis signed on 26 October 2004, Switzerland will be fully associated with the work of the SIS II Committee.

SEC(2005)0338
EUR-Lex

This is a progress report on the work carried out by the Commission in the first half of 2004 on developing the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). It also sets out the timetable for future activities. It is the fourth report presented by the Commission to the Council and the European Parliament in accordance with Article 6 of Regulation 2424/2001/EC on the development of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II). The Council has mandated responsibility for developing SIS II to the Commission, assisted by the SIS II Committee composed of representatives of the Member States.

Key issues for the period under review (January to June 2004) : these are detailed in the last progress report (SEC(2004)0499). It has to be recalled that the schedule for SIS II is particularly tight, in view of the importance of having an operational system in place in March 2007. Any delay in one stage of the planning would inevitably lead to postponement of the launch of the system. Furthermore, it is important to stress that the modification of the national systems is a matter for the Member States and that SIS II can only become operational if all of the parties involved devote the necessary resources to the project.

Progress: the report discusses the achievements in the period under review, and states that the call for tender for the development and implementation of SIS II was issued in December 2003. The Commission received a sufficient number of tenders – all from major names in the IT industry – to consider that the call for tender will be very competitive. Tenders will be evaluated on their technical merits. Proposals which reach a threshold value of at least 75% on the technical evaluation will be benchmarked. The benchmark consists of a demonstration of key functions of SIS II and a proof of concept. Finally, for those companies reaching at least 50% of the possible score, a financial evaluation will be performed.

In addition, the Commission discusses:

- the documents which contain detailed technical specifications of the future system. One of the documents is a data dictionary which specifies the data that the central system should be able to process. Another document, called use cases, describes the services that will be offered to SIS II users. These documents will be handed over to the successful contractor for the development of SIS II, as a basis for further work on the detailed specifications and design of SIS II;

- Council conclusions of 5 June 2003 cite the search for Stolen Cultural Goods as a possible future functionality of the SIS II. The Commission launched a study on the feasibility of this and the Commission services will transmit the final report to the Council and the European Parliament;

- Commission services visited the second site in Austria and considered it as suitable for hosting the Business Continuity system for SIS II. The Council has adopted conclusions on the location of the central part of SIS II in Strasbourg and the Business Continuity system in Salzburg (Austria);

- Commission Services have launched a first assessment on the status of national preparations for linking the National Systems with the central system;

- A call for tender has been launched for the selection of a contractor who will assist the Commission in the acceptance procedure and in-depth quality checks of SIS II project deliverables.

Results expected in the next period (July to December 2004): the call for tender procedure for the development and implementation of SIS II will be completed. Once the contract has been signed, the contractor’s first task will be to develop a project master plan - a timeframe for the whole SIS II project. The contractor will start working on the design of the SIS II. This design phase is planned to last until March 2005 and will deliver all the necessary documents which fully describe the SIS II from a technical perspective. In addition:

- in order to reduce the total cost for development and implementation for both SIS II and VIS, Commission services will endeavour to maximise the synergies between both systems. A study was commissioned in May to identify all possible synergies.

- the Commission plans to submit the proposals concerning the SIS II legal basis by the end of 2004.

The Commission goes on to describe its project management and the activities of the Board and the Team, and the SIS II Committee Meetings. With regard to r isk analysis, the Commission states that t he major risks to be managed for the moment are (1) the risk of not reaching an agreement within due time on the migration and integration scenarios, (2) implementation of functional requirements in addition to the ones identified in June 2004, which would increase total project duration. Risks are managed by taking the appropriate risk mitigation measures and by authorising changes to requirements only after a thorough evaluation of the impact on the project.

With regard to data protection, o ne of the major requirements identified in the report of the Joint Surveillance Authority is the existence of a legal basis for SIS II which would accurately describe the project objectives and scope, and contain the necessary guarantees on data protection. The Commission intends to propose such draft legal instruments.

The Commission concludes that over the last six months no additional delay has been incurred in the project. The next major milestone is the conclusion of the contract for the development and implementation of SIS II. The months after contract signature will be devoted to the design of

SIS II and require a tight control of the contractor’s work.

It is important to remember that the success of the SIS II project does not depend solely on the Commission but on all the parties involved in this ambitious project. This calls for a high degree of mobilisation at all levels, particularly as regards the national preparations by the countries that will participate in the new system.

SEC(2004)1129
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COM(2003)0771
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SEC(2003)0206
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COM(2001)0720

Regulation 2001/2424
OJ L 328 13.12.2001, p. 0004

T5-0547/2001
OJ C 112 09.05.2002, p. 0032-0137 E

T5-0547/2001

Debate in Parliament

A5-0333/2001

A5-0333/2001

09844/2001
OJ C 183 29.06.2001, p. 0012

09846/2001

09844/2001