Malta Pays €2 Million for Maintenance of Schengen Information System of Its Police Force – SchengenVisaInfo.com – SchengenVisaInfo.com
Malta has contracted the Gpi Group to maintain the Schengen Information system of the Maltese Police Force.
According to a press release issued by the Gpi Group, a consortium formed with the Maltese company Ptl won a tender of 5.44 million. Of the total amount, over 2 million will be used by Gpi for the supply of software and other services related to the maintenance, SchengenVisaInfo.com reports.
“The consortium won the tender for 5.44 million euros, of which 2.12 million euros pertaining to Gpi for the supply of software and related maintenance, and the remainder pertaining to Ptl for the supply of hardware and basic software,” the statement of Gpi reads.
Gpi has explained that it is very important to control the movement of persons from the external borders through internal communication flows between the Member States and external communication flows with other non-Schengen countries since nationals of the Schengen Area countries can travel within the European Union without having to undergo border checks.
The Schengen Information System (SIS) is the largest and most used information sharing system used for border management and security in Europe.
The aim of the SIS is to make Europe safer by assisting competent authorities to preserve internal border checks through the different areas of cooperation, including border control, law enforcement, and vehicle registration cooperation.
SIS allows border guards of Schengen Area countries as well as migration and visa-issuing authorities to enter and consult alerts on nationals of third countries for the purpose of refusing their entry or their stay in the Schengen Area.
In addition, SIS also supports judicial and police cooperation by permitting responsible authorities to create and consult alerts on persons who have taken part in criminal offences as well as on missing persons.
Apart from the above-mentioned, SIS helps vehicle registration services to check the legal status of different vehicles that are presented for registration.
“SIS enables competent national authorities such as the police and border guards, to enter and consult alerts of the preceding on persons or objects,” the EU Commission explains.
Except for containing information on particular persons or objects, an SIS alert also consists of instructions for the authorities on what actions to take when a person or object has been found.
The specialised national bureaus that are located in every Member State act as single points of contact for the exchange of additional information and coordination of activities that are related to the alerts of SIS.
