Reducing trafficking of stolen cars in Schengen Area

Publication date: 02 June 2005

Today, the Justice and Home Affairs Council approved, in public deliberation,  a regulation that modifies the Schengen Agreement of 14 June 1985 on access to the vehicule registration authorities to information to the Schengen Information System (SIS) by the services in the Member States responsible for issuing registration certificates for vehicles.

The purpose of this regulation is to allow vehicle registration services of the Member States of the European Union to consult certain data in the Schengen Information System (SIS). The SIS is a common database that allows authorities of each Member State, through an automatic query procedure, to access alerts regarding persons and property, especially on motor vehicles, thanks to the stolen vehicle file. Member States will be able to exchange information, especially for verifying the legal status of any vehicle before it is registered, if necessary, in the Member State in which it was previously registered.