Brussels, 06/12/2007 (Agence Europe) - On Thursday 6 December, the EU interior ministers confirmed that the extension of the Schengen area will take place as planned on 21 December 2007 but the actual lifting of land and sea border controls will be introduced from 21 December 2007 onwards, and in international airports from 30 March 2008 onwards for nine of the ten countries which joined the EU in 2004 (Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic). Only Cyprus has decided to delay joining the Schengen area until 2010. Switzerland may join Schengen by the end of 2008. Evaluation of the situation in Bulgaria and Romania will start in the second half of 2008 and it will take at least two years to complete the Schengen accession process. EU heads of state and government will take advantage of their meeting in Brussels on 14 December to stress the symbolic nature of this major event. On 21-22 December, an official visit will be organised for EU interior ministers, Portuguese Prime Minister José Sócrates, the heads of state from the countries concerned, President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso, and Commissioner Franco Frattini. The ceremonies will begin at Citau on 21 December (on the border between Poland and the Czech Republic) and will continue at the port of Tallin in Estonia. The next day, the marathon will start up again from the town of Berg on the border between Austria and Slovakia and will continue in Hegyeshalom (on the border between Austria and Hungary), a particularly symbolic town because it was where the Iron Curtain started coming down in 1989. The officials will end their trip by meeting up at the border between Italy and Slovenia at Skofije/Rabuiese. (B.C.)