Interior Ministry to Focus on Schengen, EU Presidency in 2007
The Interior Ministry will focus this year on preparations for Slovenia's entry into the Schengen no-border zone, scheduled for 31 December, and on cooperation with Germany and Portugal prior to Slovenia's stint as EU president in the first half of 2008, Interior Minister Dragutin Mate told the press on Tuesday.
Mate believes that the first step will see the elimination of land borders, while air borders should be lifted in March 2008.
Slovenia is awaiting two more Schengen evaluations this year, one at the Ljubljana airport, located at Brnik, and the other after it connects to the Schengen Information System (SIS) in the autumn.
Mate estimates that the ministry will require 3,092 police officers to efficiently patrol the Schengen border with Croatia.
The ministry's plan of activities during Slovenia's EU presidency will be presented in September, as it depends on the achievements of Slovenia's two preceding EU presidents, Germany and Portugal, he said.
In other fields, the ministry has drafted a national crime-prevention programme and will put forward a proposal to impose stricter sanctions to those who sell illegal drugs to minors, he said.
Asked why the work programme does not list the issue of the erased, some 18,000 inhabitants of former Yugoslav republics who were removed from the permanent residence registry in 1992, Mate responded that the cabinet had already drafted a constitutional bill on the issue.
The bill has not yet been submitted to parliament, as the coalition has failed to muster the sufficient majority.
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