Schengen evaluation
Schengen evaluation is a specific evaluation process, which aims at ensuring high quality in implementing Schengen rules and at strengthening cooperation in the area without border checks. It verifies the level of readiness for the full implementation of the Schengen acquis, but also application of Schengen standards in practice. Also the states which are already full-fledged members of the Schengen area must pass through this process.
Schengen evaluation is a specific evaluation process, which aims at ensuring high quality in implementing Schengen rules and at strengthening cooperation in the area without border checks. It verifies the level of readiness for the full implementation of the Schengen acquis, but also application of Schengen standards in practice. Also the states which are already full-fledged members of the Schengen area must pass through this process.
The Schengen evaluation is a complex system, which includes a written part (filling of evaluation questionnaires) and a practical verification of the Schengen standards directly on the territory of the states in question. The evaluation also includes an assessment of readiness, respectively the correct application of the Schengen rules in practice. The evaluated states are in principle provided with a series of recommendations in order to improve the current practice or to remove insufficiencies found. Already before the conclusion of the evaluation process the state is obliged to document the fulfilment of these recommendations.
The Czech Republic passed through the evaluation in the years 2005-2007. Within the evaluation, the Czech Republic was visited six times with evaluation expert teams, which verified the readiness of the Czech Republic in all the areas of the Schengen co-operation (police co-operation, personal data protection, visa and consular matters, border control at the international airports and SIS). Continuously the Czech Republic was implementing the recommendations for the correct application of Schengen rules into practice, so that the responsible EU Council Working Party could have concluded readiness of the Czech Republic to join Schengen, and recommended the ministers to endorse the decision to abolish the border checks at the new Schengen internal border.
In 2011, two EU Member States have successfully concluded the evaluation of their preparedness for joining the Schengen area: Bulgaria and Romania. However, their Schengen accession requires a unanimous decision by ministers of the interior of all Schengen states (after consulting the European Parliament) which is still pending.
Closer to Schengen currently seems Liechtenstein which launched the Schengen evaluation in the first half of 2011 and which seeks its Schengen membership by the end of 2011.
Concerning Cyprus, of crucial importance will be the launching of the second generation of the Schengen Information System (SIS II), what is expected in the first quarter of 2013.
Department for Asylum and Migration Policy, 19th December, 2011