Information brochure

The Schengen Area is an area without internal border controls. Everyone has the right to free travel within the Schengen Area.

States in the Schengen Area include Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece, Denmark, Estonia, Spain, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary, Finland, France, the Czech Republic, Sweden, and the associated countries which are not Member States of the European Union – Iceland, Norway and Switzerland.

Ireland and the United Kingdom have not removed the internal border controls and do not apply the rules of the common visa policy but participate in the part of the Schengen law relating to police and judicial cooperation, including in terms of the Schengen Information System.

Bulgaria, Cyprus, and Romania have signed the Schengen Agreement but have not yet implemented the procedures for its full application.

 

The Schengen Information System is a common database in the field of national security, support of police and judicial co-operation and external border control management.

Countries participating in the system send alerts on wanted and missing persons, lost and stolen property, as well as alerts for bans on entering the Schengen Area.

 

Name, nickname, special characteristics, date and place of birth, sex, and citizenship.

 

Alerts on persons and property entered in SIS are kept only for the period necessary for achieving the purposes which they were entered for. SIS alerts are automatically erased after a specified storage period in terms of no necessity for their further storage.

The specific periods for storing individual alerts are defined by the provisions of the Schengen Convention.

 

In the Republic of Bulgaria, the authorities responsible for entering, updating and deleting SIS national alerts fall within the structures of the Ministry of Interior.

 

These are the executive authorities in the field of internal affairs, defence, judiciary power, transport, customs, institutions involved in the issue of visas and residence permits, as well as the Commission for Personal Data Protection (CPDP).

 

Each country in the Schengen Area establishes a National SIRENE Bureau which carries out twenty-four hour exchange of SIS information with the other states in the Schengen Area.

In Bulgaria, the National SIRENE Bureau is a specialized operational unit within the structure of the International Operational Cooperation Directorate with the Ministry of Interior.

 

In Bulgaria, the control on individuals’ rights protection related to the processing of their personal data and gaining access to such data is exercised by the Commission for Personal Data Protection upon observance of the terms and conditions set out in the Personal Data Protection Act.

 

You are entitled to request information regarding the collection, recording, organization, storage, adjustment or alteration, retrieval, consultation, use, disclosure by transmission, dissemination, disclosure, update, deletion or destruction of personal data about you in SIS.

You can exercise your right of access and information in the Schengen Information System in each country in the Schengen Area regardless of your nationality.

Only the state that entered the alert has the right to add, alter or delete data entered in SIS.

Information on the procedure through which you can exercise your rights in the relevant state can be obtained from its national authority on data protection. You can also seek assistance from the national data protection authority in any Schengen state when you are denied information about your data processed in SIS.

 

You can exercise your rights by submitting a written request (in person or by a representative expressly authorized by virtue of a power of attorney) to the Minister for Interior.

The Minister for Interior is obliged to decide within 14 days of receipt of the request for access. However, this period may be extended where this is required by the circumstances of the case.

 

In the event that your request for access and information is not accepted, you have the right to complain to the Commission for Personal Data Protection.

The Commission for Personal Data Protection can examine the data related to you and included in SIS, as well as receive information on their use.

 

You may seek protection through judicial channels by lodging a complaint before the appropriate administrative court or the Supreme Administrative Court (SAC) under the general rules of jurisdiction.

Failure to appeal before CPDP does not preclude judicial appeal (the refusal of access or refusal to provide information on exercising the right of deleting, adjusting, and blocking).