The Council meeting of the JHA Ministers on 4-5 June 2018 saw the adoption of conclusions to strengthen the cooperation and use of the Schengen information system (SIS) to deal with persons involved in terrorism or terrorism-related activities, including foreign terrorist fighters. The conclusions are addressed to the Member States, the Commission, Europol, Frontex, and CEPOL. They aim to facilitate the identification and tracing of foreign terrorist fighters based on SIS hits.

Member States are called upon to ensure that relevant information is provided and that information is shared with Europol. Together with the Commission, Member States should also develop tools for “immediate reporting” in case of a hit of a person involved in terrorism-related activities. Europol is invited to make full use of its current rights to access SIS, VIS, and Eurodac in order to step up efforts to identify travel patterns and the connections of persons involved in terrorism and to share the outcome of these efforts with Member States’ authorities. Frontex and CEPOL should increase their training efforts.