Brussels, 23/07/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Friday 20 July, in Bratislava, home ministers of 14 EU countries confirmed their wish to see the countries that joined the EU in 2004 integrate the current version of the Schengen Information System (SIS1+) by the end of August, which would allow them to enter the Schengen Area at the end of December 2007. Nine countries are currently lined up to join the area without borders: the Czech Republic, the Slovakian Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland and Slovenia. The go-ahead allowing these States to join the Schengen Area will formally depend on a positive evaluation of their ability to control their external borders, as well as their ability to integrate the common computerised database for the Schengen countries - the Schengen Information System - that forms a connection between their police, gendarme, justice and customs authorities. According to the timetable set, border controls for these countries would begin to lift from end December 2007 for land and maritime frontiers, and by March 2008 at the latest for air frontiers. “As the timetable within the implementation of SIS is still valid, there is no reason to postpone the deadline for the entry of individual countries in Schengen”, said Robert Kalinak, Slovakian Home Minister, after a two-day meeting with his European counterparts. Portugal's under secretary of State at the Ministry of the Interior, José Magalhaes, whose country currently holds EU Presidency, said that several countries have failed SIS membership tests, but that there was sufficient time to take them again, successfully (EUROPE 9472). Slovenia is the fist of the 9 new member states to have successfully made a complete SIS connection, Slovenian Home Minister Dragutin Mate said after the meeting. In his view, his country will be followed by Hungary and Estonia. If all goes according to plan, the Schengen assessment of SIS-related aspects will begin mid-September 2007. (bc)