Tampere, 22/09/2006 (Agence Europe) - Given the delays in establishing the second generation of the Schengen Information System (SIS II), initially scheduled for completion in April 2007, a transition system may now be considered, explained the Finnish Presidency on 21 September after a meeting of EU interior ministers in Tampere (Finland). At a press conference on Thursday evening, Finnish interior minister, Kari Rajamäki, said the EU was running the risk of serious delays in establishing SIS II and would be looking to see whether it would be possible to have a SIS I+ ahead of SIS II. The EU is considering a technical alternative to allow the Schengen Area to be extended to the new Member States within the initial deadline (October 2007). The new idea, mooted on Thursday by Portugal with the backing of several experts, would make it possible to extend the current SIS system on a temporary basis to the new Member States. The new system would have the same level of security as the current one and would enable internal border controls to be lifted. Diplomats explained that the idea is aimed at satisfying the new Member States, which would not be happy about delaying the lifting of border controls. On 16 September, the presidents of the four Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic) criticised the delay in their joining the Schengen Area in no uncertain terms. Czech President, Vaclav Klaus, said that the four presidents agreed that their countries joining the Schengen Area was an absolute priority and the delay amounted to discrimination. Enlarging the area of free circulation could be delayed by at least a year because of technical problems with setting up SIS II to link up the various police authorities (police, customs, armed police, etc) of all participating Member States. At their next meeting, to be held in Luxembourg on 4 and 5 October, EU interior ministers are expected to make it clear whether or not they will be following the Portuguese idea. The final decision about lifting internal border controls will only be taken after an assessment of the security of new Member States' external borders. A Commission report on the technical timetable for establishing SIS II, submitted to the Council at the end of August, listed various technical reasons for the delays in preparing SIS II, for example delays in the tendering process for acquiring information systems, delays in preparing the headquarters of the central system (in Strasbourg) and delays in preparing the legislation adopted in the codecision process with the European Parliament. Diplomats explained that there had also been disagreements between some countries and the contracting companies, and between the European Commission and its main contractor. On Thursday, Rajamäki said he would do all in his power to ensure the delays were reduced to as short a time as possible, hoping that agreement on the legal texts could be reached in October. SIS II should normally take over where the current SIS system takes off. SIS I covers the 15 old Member States apart from the UK and Ireland, along with Norway and Iceland. SIS I does not have the technical capacity to absorb Switzerland and the ten new Member States which joined the EU in May 2004.