Organisation of a meeting of SIRENE national bureau heads is a commitment of every Member State holding the EU presidency.

This year's meeting will be held from 20 to 22 May 2008 at Brdo and will bring together heads of SIRENE national bureaus from the EU Member States, Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein, a representative of the General Secretariat of the EU Council, a representative of the European Commission and a representative of the Permanent Representation of the Republic of Slovenia in Brussels.

At the meeting the functioning of the Schengen Information System will be discussed, with the emphasis on the nine newcomers, which joined the system on 1 September 2007, i.e. Slovenia, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Malta, Lithuania, Latvia, Hungary and Estonia. The discussion will focus on the functioning of the system and the difficulties faced by the Member States that are part of SIS.

In addition, training of SIRENE bureau operators will be discussed, as the qualification of operators is very important for the effectiveness of the Schengen information system. This topic is one of the priorities of the Slovenian presidency.

Heads of SIRENE bureaus will also discuss the second-generation Schengen information System – SIS II – which is expected to become operational in 2009. The system will introduce some new functionalities (interlinking of alerts, attaching European arrest warrant, biometric data, new categories of objects).