Brussels, 05/12/2006 (Agence Europe) - The lifting of all border controls in countries expecting to join the Schengen area is expected to gradually begin at the end of December 2007. EU ministers of the interior agreed on Tuesday, during the Justice and Home Affairs Council, that expansion of the Schengen area to new Member States, including Switzerland, would happen at the end of December 2007, with the lifting of controls at land and maritime borders. The lifting of borders in the air transport field would occur at the end of March 2008. The Czech minister of the interior Ivan Langer was pleased to inform journalists that “this decision means Europe will not stay divided”.
The green light allowing the 10 countries that joined the EU in 2004 to become part of the Schengen area will be subject to a formal positive assessment of their ability to control their external borders, as well as their capacity to integrate into the common Schengen data base information system - “Schengen Information Service” (SIS), which links their authorities up (police, gendarmes, judiciary and customs). Their connection to this system constitutes a sine qua non condition for their participation in the internal borderless security area. From the middle of 2007, the European Commission will make a final assessment to find out whether security standards have been respected. The final decision to get rid of controls is expected during a meeting of ministers of the interior in autumn 2007.
The lifting of border controls, initially planned for October 2007, will not be possible in the planned time frame due to delays in implementation of the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II) to which the security services of new Member States are expected to be connected EUROPE 9279 and 9204). Facing pressure from new Member States, the Council has therefore accepted the Portuguese “SIS I for all” solution which will allow (subject to technical modifications and additional costs of €5 million) new Member States to connect to the current SIS at the end of 2007.
According to the compromise reached by the ministers, the 10 countries will temporarily be allowed to join the current and improved Schengen Information System (SIS I for All) until the new version of the SIS II system is launched in June 2008. In keeping with the timetable adopted by ministers, land and maritime border controls will be lifted in December 2007 and those in airports by 30 March 2008 at the latest. The lifting of airport border controls will occur on this date because it is the same time that the clocks go forward or back for airline connections. In their conclusion, ministers, remain, however, cautious about strict respect for the timetable. Nevertheless, they say that they are “aware” of the fact that together with the technical feasibility of SIS I for All, difficulties linked to its development could cause a delay to its implementation. The Commission and certain countries believe that the SIS I for All project will lead to additional delays in implementation of SIS II, which everyone considers as “an absolute priority”. One diplomat stressed that, “several countries, like France (which is managing the Schengen Information System in Strasbourg) consider that the new calendar is going to be difficult to keep to, given the very numerous technical risks that exist”. The final agreement was nearly blocked at the last moment by the United Kingdom and Ireland, mainly because of the costs. These two countries are not currently part of Schengen but do financially contribute to the implementation of SIS II, whose budget is expected to be €25 million a year. They did in fact refuse to pay for additional costs incurred through implementation of the SIS I for All system (around €5 million). Other EU countries, excluding Cyprus, agreed to share the costs. With the goal of being connected to SIS I for All, the new Member States also agreed to contribute financially to the historic costs of the SIS I system.
Member States of the Schengen area currently include some EU countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Greece, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and two non EU member countries, Iceland and Norway. Switzerland will join the Schengen area at the same time as the new Member States of the EU. Only Cyprus among the 10 new Member States, decided to keep its borders in place. The arrival of Cyprus in the Schengen area does not yet have a date but some diplomats think that the country may enter when SIS II is operational.
The Schengen Information System (SIS), set up in Strasbourg, has had around 17 million alerts, 90% of which involve stolen property. Around 800,000 undesirable persons sought by the legal authorities are also registered. 17 different items of information can be processed per second. SIS II aims to strengthen the mechanism for identifying people through the storage of biometric data (photographs and digital fingerprinting). (bc)