Article 10(4) of Protocol No 36 allowed the United Kingdom, at the latest six months before the expiry of the five year transitional period after the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, to notify to the Council that it does not accept, with respect to acts of the Union in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters which had been adopted before the entry into force of the Treaty of Lisbon, the powers of the Commission and of the Court of Justice as referred to in Article 10(1) of Protocol No 36.

By letter to the President of the Council of 24 July 2013, the United Kingdom made use of the above possibility by notifying the Council that it did not accept the said powers of the Commission and of the Court of Justice, with the consequence that the relevant acts in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters would cease to apply to the United Kingdom on 1 December 2014.

Article 10(5) of Protocol No 36 allows the United Kingdom to notify the Council of its wish to participate in the above acts, including those acts which are part of the Schengen acquis, in which case the relevant provisions of the Schengen Protocol should apply.

It is therefore necessary to identify the acts and provisions in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters which are part of the Schengen acquis in which the United Kingdom will continue to participate following the above notification of its wish to do so and therefore to amend Decision 2000/365/EC and Decision 2004/926/EC.

Decision 2000/365/EC and Decision 2004/926/EC, as amended, will thus continue to apply, in particular concerning those provisions of the Schengen acquis in which the United Kingdom was authorised to take part and which are not acts and provisions in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters as referred to in Article 10(1) of Protocol No 36.

As recalled in Decision 2000/365/EC, the United Kingdom has a special position in respect of matters covered by Title V of Part Three of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union (TFEU), as recognised in the Schengen Protocol, as well as in Protocol No 20 on the application of certain aspects of Article 26 of the TFEU to the United Kingdom and to Ireland (hereinafter ‘Protocol No 20’) and Protocol No 21 on the position of the United Kingdom and Ireland in respect of the area of Freedom, Security and Justice (hereinafter ‘Protocol No 21’), annexed to the Treaty on European Union and to the TFEU. Due to this special position, the Schengen Protocol provides for the possibility of the United Kingdom to participate in some of the provisions of the Schengen acquis.

In accordance with Article 10(5) of Protocol No 36, the participation of the United Kingdom in some of the provisions of the Schengen acquis which are contained in acts of the Union in the field of police cooperation and judicial cooperation in criminal matters as provided in this Decision re-establishes the widest possible measure of participation of the United Kingdom in the Schengen acquis of the Union in the area of freedom, security and justice without seriously affecting the practical operability of the various parts thereof, while respecting their coherence.

As recalled in Decision 2000/365/EC, the Schengen acquis was conceived and functions as a coherent ensemble which has to be fully accepted and applied by all States supporting the principle of the abolition of checks on persons at their common borders.

The implementing power to adopt the decisions under Articles 5(1) and 6(1) of Decision 2000/365/EC, whereby the Schengen acquis will be applied to the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man and the relevant acquis on the Schengen Information System will be put into effect for the United Kingdom, should be conferred on the Council. This is in view of the specific role entrusted to the Council by the Schengen Protocol when it comes to unanimously agreeing on new participants into the Schengen acquis, but also in view of the high level of mutual trust between the Member States which is required when examining that the preconditions for the implementation of the provisions on the Schengen Information System have been fulfilled and when taking the subsequent decision by which those provisions will be put into effect for the United Kingdom. The Council should act with the unanimity of its members referred to in Article 1 of the Schengen Protocol and of the representative of the Government of the United Kingdom.

In accordance with Article 5 of the Agreement of 2008 on Switzerland's association with the Schengen acquis, the Mixed Committee established pursuant to Article 3 thereof has been informed about the preparation of this Decision,