UK now part of another Euro data-spaff scheme The United Kingdom has joined the European Union's new Schengen Information System II (SIS II), a multinational database-sharing platform for member states' authorities to access each others' databases in real time. Following the Council of the European Union's decision of 12 February, the UK has, as of this week, been given …
(yes, there are enough of us around to remember)
we still haven't got freedom of movement within Europe (one of the selling points)
we still haven't got freedom of trade
There is a point of view that UKIP aren't necessarily *anti* Europe.
Just don't feel like giving it another 42 years.
> we still haven't got freedom of movement within Europe (one of the selling points)
Yep. The Government seem happy to sign-up to all the Schengen "behind the scenes" bits but just can't quite bring itself to scrap the border controls.
> we still haven't got freedom of trade
Errm, we've had free trade within Europe for ages. Did you have an example in mind?
['Eat this' icon as the EU is so indelibly associated with the CAP]
"we still haven't got freedom of movement within Europe (one of the selling points)"
As someone who has been part of the EU for 27 years, and travelled as far as Hungary by car from Birmingham, are you sure about this? The only time my passport was required was leaving Dover and then on the way back in Dunkirk. Going from France, Germany, Luxemborg (cheapest place to buy Jagermiester), Austria, France, Belgium and Holland, I didn't at any point need to produce my passport.
To me, that's freedom of movement. But if it's a bit more complex than that I'd like to find out.
>'Her Majestys' servants don't really care if we leave.
The police can however just ask a local magistrate for a banning order and confiscate your passport if they "suspect" you plan to do something naughty abroad. Of course the legislation was only intended for football hooligans - it just came in really useful for stopping anti-G8 protesters going to Paris.
@AC - I'd beinterested to see what they do, after all their own guidance states you can bring an unlimited amount in for personal consumption and / or gifting, see:
https://www.gov.uk/duty-free-goods/arrivals-from-eu-countries
Although they may apparantly ask you questions if it's above 800, personally I don't mind as I love a quiz, me, I hope there aren't any sports questions though, I'm rubbish at those.
Indeed - exactly as per the footnote in the article: without further checks or balances on their power to do so.
Other countries have it. It is the implementation of Eu directives in their own law including data protection, human rights, etc. This includes rights such as the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, etc. All "cute" nice stuff absent from UK law.
Yes, I know, Parliament is sovereign and shall not be bound... When you give it a thought and have a look at parliament questions for 5 minutes you start thinking that binding it (in a straightjacket) may not be such a bad idea after all.
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"a key tool for national authorities to cooperate to fight terrorism and serious organised crime."
Ah, important to get the word terror in there, however the reality is more likely to be "catch tax dodgers" but that doesn't scare up the proles as much and "paedophiles" was even less easy to lever onto the justification. It's all about the money, with law enforcement a second priority - it's no coicidence that "serious organised crime" is considered so serious as they don't pay their taxes.
Maybe I'm just feeling particularly cynical today...
So much moaning about potentially negative EU legislation. It really depends how open to abuse this is.
With the recent record of badly tabled legislation in the UK of late, it'll probably end up being a keystone of the future police state.
Yet people continue to vote for the same old parties who have the same old agendas either under the table or over the table with spin (most probably across the union).
When they do finally flip, its into the hands of extremists running almost singularly on a 'scapegoat' agenda, as if everything will be rosey in the garden of eden (or englands green and pleasant land) when the undesirables are removed, didn't work last century, won't work this.
"..as if everything will be rosey in the garden of eden (or englands green and pleasant land) when the undesirables are removed, didn't work last century, won't work this."
Indeed. Like I always say, the events of the interbellum were yesterday, and can happen again tomorrow. It's way too intellectually lazy to dismiss it as unrepeatable ancient history. Really hoping that 1919 - 1939 is actually taught in history class these days, it's often overlooked, and IMHO is one of the most enlightening periods in modern history.
1919 - 1939 Used to be on the GCSE syllabus, don't know if it still is. Of course you'd have to have chosen history as an option in most cases.
It's not all intellectual laziness, but an inherited sense of moral superiority, merely because the UK had a slight moral high ground at the start and a definite moral high ground by the end, and they've been coasting on that reputation for the last sixty odd years.
As the Reg said: "In 2013, the system was accessed more than 1.2 billion times;" and "8774 persons were arrested". Now if you take the number of arrested persons who were not subsequently convected and the number of seized objects that had to be returned to their owners, our Eurocracy looks like a hallmark of inefficiency, if your average Google search turns up a thousand hits.
The UK has hitherto not been extended access to the SIS II as it is not part of the Schengen free movement area. However, as of April 13 it is now allowed to use the SIS within the context of police and judicial cooperation, though not in relation to external border policy.
Re SIS I: "The UK was given access to sensitive information on criminal and policing matters held on the Schengen Information System, an EU-wide directory, in 2000, but there have been repeated technical problems".
Re SIS II, I was told at a meeting at the Home Office on 23 February 2010 that the UK should be able to use it from 2012.
Interpol weren't impressed with UK border control in 2004. Or 2007.
Raytheon didn't help.
The problems lie in the UK Border Force. Not the EU.
"Errm, we've had free trade within Europe for ages. Did you have an example in mind?"
Here's one: bought Netflix UK subscription from UK company. Want to watch in Bulgaria. Can't.
Here's another one: bought a nice plant in Amsterdam. Want to take it home to Wales. Can't.
One last one: run a pub in Portsmouth, show TV acquired (legally) from Greek company, get sued. The case turned out partially in her favour, but if we had free trade, it could never have been brought.
On the other hand, things like this play straight into the hands of the idiots of UKIP. Or worse, the Daily Fail.
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re this line: a power for specified bodies with access to SIS II to issue alerts for “banknotes (registered notes)”.
there was always a rumour, around the time that the Hitachi mμ RFID chip came out in 2006 (a nano-sized mote that would fit *inside* a piece of paper) that high value banknotes could occasionally be RF labelled - easier for a border-point to detect random cash smuggling, or praps look for specific serial numbers
good news that UK has joined SIS II, does that mean they've finally granted the EU databases operators permission to see the UK SIS II search metadata [some earlier concern was that if it was known, through metadata leakage, that the Sweeney was interested in a mafia boss pretending to be the president of, say, Bulgaria - then he might do a runner before the guvnor nicked 'im] innit?
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