Brussels, 27/10/2008 (Agence Europe) -The Swiss Minister for Justice and the Police, Eveline Widmer-Schlumpf, declared on Friday 24 October that her country was ready for the forthcoming removal of its border controls with the countries of the Schengen zone, at a meeting of the joint committee in Luxembourg. The ministers of the EU will take position unanimously at the end of November on Switzerland's involvement in the Schengen area. "I wish to show how much importance I attache to this imminent decision on Schengen", said Ms Widmer-Schlumpf after the meeting. The operational inclusion of Switzerland in the area without internal borders may take place before Christmas for land frontiers and in March for airports, to coincide with the airlines moving to their summer timetables. It is worth noting that the Council of the EU has also adopted a regulation and a decision on the migration of the Schengen Information System (SIS 1+) into the second-generation Schengen information system (SIS II). The European Commissioner with responsibility for Justice, Jacques Barrot, has once again announced that technical problems have arisen in the implementation of the SIS II. Some tests have had to be broken off and are set to resume on 5 November. "We cannot think about a further delay, we are doing all in our power to avoid it", stressed Mr Barrot. "We will know more by the end of the year", he said. (B.C./trans.fl)