"From a police perspective, Schengen arms us with information", said Maltese Police Sergeant Pierre Minuti. The SIS database provides police forces throughout Europe with direct and immediate access to information related to border security and law enforcement. "If I detain a person in Malta`s capital Valetta, I can check out this person in all Schengen countries by some simple computer clicks", Minuti said.
Enhanced police cooperation through the SIS database is one of the most important measures to compensate for the open-borders policy of the Schengen zone. Due to the importance of the database, the Schengen aquis includes strict security requirements to protect the database. Norway supports Malta's Police Force with an 85-percent grant towards its €300,000 SIS database security project. The protective measures need to be in place by end-September, when Malta is up for a final evaluation on its preparedness for Schengen membership.
News
13.09.2008
The Schengen agreement goes far beyond swapping soft internal borders for hard external frontiers, and a second Schengen project on Malta that is supported by Norway concerns protecting one of the most important tools of the European police forces – the Schengen Information System (SIS).