Official meeting of the Heads of the National Departments S.I.RE.N.E. (SIRENE) takes place in our country on the two-day weekend of June 19 and 20
The meeting is being carried out within the framework of assuming the Greek Presidency of the European Union
Official meeting of the Heads of the National SIRENE Offices (Supplementary Information Request at the National Entries) takes place on the two‑day period 19 to 20 June 2014 at the Zappeio Hall. The meeting is being carried out and coordinated by our country, within the framework of assuming the Presidency of the European Union.
Specifically, the meeting includes the Heads of the SIRENE Sections from twenty‑eight (28) States –Members of the Schengen Treaty , as well as Representatives of the European Commission.
During the sessions, the best operating practices of the S.I.R.E.N.E. Sections will be discussed and decided, and various legal, procedural or even technical matters within their competence will be discussed, in accordance with the applicable institutional framework that governs them.
The commencement of the meeting's work was carried out today by the Deputy Chief of the Hellenic Police, Brigadier General Spyridon Papaspirou, who in his speech noted, among other things, the following:
"Since the start of the implementation of the Schengen in our country, the Hellenic Police has attached particular importance to the operation of the S.I.RE.N.E. , which operates as a single point of contact for the exchange of supplementary information regarding data from the SIS II and supports all Law Enforcement Services in matters within its competence.
Particularly upon the start of operations of the Schengen (SIS II) from 9 April 2013, End Users of the Schengen have the ability to search for additional categories of objects such as Vessels, Vessel Engines, Airplanes, Industrial Equipment, etc.
This increased the workload of the SIRENE Bureaux but provided added value in the prevention and suppression of crime. Also, the ability to post European Arrest Warrants and photographs in the System greatly assisted your work and significantly reduced the response time of the Law Enforcement Services.
At this point, I would like to provide you with indicative statistics from the Greek SIRENE for 2013, which demonstrate the importance of the work produced, as I believe is also the case in the S.I.RE.N.E. Departments of the Member States you represent.
- They were arrested in our country with a European Arrest Warrant, 196 fugitives,
- 53 fugitives were arrested in the Schengen area , based on Greek E.U.s, compared to 39 in 2012 (Increase of 35.89%)
- In the year 2013, the 3rd SIRENE Section handled a total of 3.785 positive inquiries
- A total of 44,717 messages were sent
- In the year 2013, the total number of keystrokes from the services of the Hellenic Police showed an increase compared to 2012, from 28,270,694 to 29,204,616 (3.30% increase)
We hope to improve and strengthen these statistical results through targeted actions and repeated training of all staff.
Within the framework of the recently passed Law on the reorganization of the Greek Police Services, our country decided to create a Single and Unified Contact Center (Single Point Of Contact), which will consist of all the National Units of International Police Cooperation (such as S. I.RE.N.E., Interpol and EUROPOL ).
The main goal is to strengthen information exchange processes, primarily with the aim of eliminating the phenomenon of fragmentation and the loss of important information that concerns the Law Enforcement Services.
The implementation of this model is expected to be completed in the coming months, and we believe it will become a reference point and an upgrade of information exchange in the Hellenic Police».
It should be noted that the S.I.RE.N.E. Departments are the responsible National Authority of each State – Member of the SCHENGEN Convention, which ensures the exchange of all supplementary information for entries that exist in the National Schengen Information System of the Second Generation (SIS II), while also coordinating the quality control of the information entered into the aforementioned system.
