| 6 April 2009 The Council adopted the following conclusions: "The Council, Reaffirming that the SIS is a pivotal tool in securing the controls on persons at external borders and in enhancing security and justice within the Schengen area, Taking note of the statistical analysis that shows that the total number of alerts in SIS has practically tripled in eight years; and that the number of hits has substantially risen, especially since 10 new participating States have joined, Recognising that the Member States could nonetheless further optimise the operational contribution of SIS, whilst the growth in the workload of the SIRENE Bureaux related to the increase in the number of alerts and hits in SIS and also to other tasks (EAW, etc.) has not been covered by a corresponding increase in numbers of staff; this situation has a substantial negative impact on SIRENE's operational ability and should be dealt with expeditiously, Acknowledging that in the near future a further increase in the number of alerts and hits as well as in the SIRENE workload should be taken into account and relevant measures undertaken, Underlining that the training of SIRENE operators should be supported at EU level in order to achieve common qualification standards, (1) Welcomes the considerable contribution of the SIS, including SIRENE cooperation, in protecting the area without internal border checks, especially in the context of the enlargement of the Schengen area; (2) Welcomes the statistics on alerts and hits in the SIS and invites the SIS/SIRENE Working Party to provide them to the Council annually; (3) Calls on the Member States to take steps to further enhance the use of the SIS; (4) Notes the significant growth in the workload at SIRENE Bureaux and appeals to the Member States to take appropriate and prompt measures to cope with this development and to ensure the rapidity and high quality of cooperation between SIRENE Bureaux, especially in the area of manpower; (5) Strongly supports activities to establish common training for SIRENE operators in order to maintain high professional standards."
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