1. Name of the Fund
European External Borders Fund
2. Annual programme
2013
3. Priority
Priority “Support for the establishment of IT systems necessary for the implementation of Community instruments in the field of external borders and visas”
4. Activity
Activity 4.4 “Preparation of the national SIS II application, related information systems, technical infrastructure and data for the start of operations of SIS II”
5. Project name
“Preparation of the national SIS II application, related information systems, technical infrastructure and data for the start of operations of SIS II”
6. Project description
On 9 April 2013, it is planned to perform migration from the first generation Schengen Information System (hereinafter - SIS I+) to the second generation Schengen Information System (hereinafter - SIS II). In order to ensure the full exchange of data between SIS II and the related national information systems, it is necessary to ensure that the national systems are able to exchange data with the new National Communication Management System (NCMS) module, which is part of the National SIS II (hereinafter N.SIS II) applications developed on the basis of the requirements of the technical specification ICD 3.01 developed by the European Commission. Within the framework of the European External Borders Fund (hereinafter - EBF) 2011 programme, the Information Centre (hereinafter - the Centre) has implemented the appropriate development of the information systems under its responsibility. Implementing the process of centralization of ICT resources, the Centre established that the information systems of the State Border Guard (hereinafter - SBG) and the Office of Citizenship and Migration Affairs (hereinafter - OCMA) are not ready for migration to SIS II and it is necessary to perform adaptation of the electronic information systems of the State Border Guard (REIS) and the interfaces between the subsystems of the National Visa Information System (NVIS) and the Unified Migration Information System (UMIS) managed by the OCMA in accordance with SIS II. Without the adaptation of these system interfaces, after the migration to SIS II, these national registries will not be able to exchange data correctly with the NCMS, thus the SBG and OCMA will be able to check categories of persons, road transport, personal identification documents and other categories of SIS II objects only by using the Integrated Home Affairs Information System (IIIS) web search software, which would critically affect the procedures of work of these services, as the lenght of time required to check the persons and objects in the Schengen Information System (SIS) will significantly increase. Such a scenario will clearly prolong the visa issuance process and increase the number of queues at border checkpoints.
The migration to SIS II should also ensure that the conditions of Article 19 of Council Decision 2007/533 /JHA of the European Union are met, i.e., the SIS II information campaign aims to inform the public about the purposes of SIS II, the data stored in the system, the access rights of the authorities, as well as the rights of the data subject. In order to achieve the goal, it is necessary to ensure the production of informative materials. Within the framework of the project, it is planned to produce information booklets, posters and document sets, as well as the distribution of the mentioned informative materials will be ensured.
Within the framework of the EBF project activities in 2011, the Centre has implemented the full provision of N.SIS II search functionality. However, even after the migration to SIS II, the Centre needs to further develop its N.SIS II, which envisages the transfer of a number of objects to the SIS. In order to ensure the full use of the SIS II functionality, it is necessary to carry out a detailed analysis of the objects to be searched, which are currently not included in the national search of the IIIS “Property Search” and in the SIS. In order to do this, it is necessary to examine the number of objects currently entered in the national search as well as in the national registers by all SIS II categories. In addition, taking into account the amendments to the Schengen Information System Operation Law adopted on 20 December 2012, which entered into force on 23 January 2013, it is necessary for the Centre to ensure compliance of the N.SIS II functionality (with regard to objects to be announced in the SIS). Also, within the scope of the project, the Centre plans to eliminate the shortcomings and system errors identified to date in connection with the creation of SIS notifications, as well as to improve the functionality of the N.SIS II system, which, for example, will ensure greater use of IIIS and SIS information for the operational needs of the State Police and the State Border Guard.
Along with the implementation of SIS II and the corresponding changes in the information systems, the Centre must also provide a high-availability data transmission network at the national level, which is directly dependent on the optical data transmission network of the Ministry of the Interior (hereinafter - MoI ODTN). The existing active equipment of the MoI ODTN provided a secure data transmission channel for SIS I+ data processing, but did not provide a sufficient level of availability. The existing MoI ODTN solution is implemented without reservation, i.e. there is only one core network switch in each building and / or server room. Due to this configuration, the core network has single point of failure nodes, which means that in cases where one of the core network switches does not work in the SIS II server room or in the building where it is located, the system becomes inaccessible. Due to this situation, it is also significantly more difficult to update the MoI ODTN equipment, which is not possible without system shutdown. Therefore, in order to ensure a level of availability of data transmission in accordance with the requirements of SIS II, an appropriate modernization of the MoI ODTN is required.
In 2012, extensive testing of N.SIS II was carried out with the aim of determining its readiness for SIS II implementation. The Centre ensured the success of all test scenarios, however, the performance results of the N.SIS II application in the data transmission performance tests were critically low and only minimally exceeded the minimum test requirements. This situation is due to the fact that N.SIS II (and previously N.SIS) is running on software platform Oracle Application Server, which has become obsolete. In 2010, the manufacturer discontinued technical support on these platforms, which, in turn, means that the maintenance costs of the N.SIS II application will increase significantly and maintaining its performance at the level specified by the European Commission will become significantly more difficult. To address this issue, the migration of the N.SIS II application to the latest generation software platform is required.
7. Procurement
Procurement procedure No. IeM IC 2013/1 EĀRF
Procurement procedure no. IeM IC 2013/27 EĀRF
Procurement procedure no. IeM IC 2013/36 EĀRF
Procurement procedure no. IeM IC 2014/13 EĀRF
Procurement procedure no. IeM IC 2014/20 EĀRF
8. Financing
The project is co-financed by the EUROPEAN UNION