Interior Minister Rado Bohnic said Slovenia expects to enter the Schengen group by 2007, as he met with his counterparts from Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, countries that make up the Salzburg Forum.
The ministers of five EU newcomers and Austria examined a number of initiatives regarding the EU interior policy, among them the timetable for the accession of Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia to the Schengen group.
Bohinc said that Slovenia had insisted and eventually achieved that the timetable was set down in the Brussels documents. He expects that the EU council of interior and justice ministers would adopt a resolution on it in 2005.
According to the timetable, the four newcomers - not including the Czech Republic, which has only internal borders - would begin the evaluation process in 2005 and would be able to join the Schengen group by the end of 2007.
The ministers also examined an initiative for data exchange between national police forces. Bohinc highlighted that the newcomers should have access to the Schengen data base even before they officially join the group.
A proposal for data exchange was also made regarding Eurodac, which collects information on asylum-seekers. Hungary suggested that Eurodac data should be used by other data bases such as Europol, Eurojust, Interpol and then Schengen group.
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