Slovenia First EU Newcomer to Be Connected to SIS
Slovenia is the first among the nine candidates for entering the Schengen passport-free zone to have established a full link to the central Schengen Information System (SIS), Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on Friday in Bratislava.
Slovenia will be followed by Hungary and Estonia in establishing the full link. "This means that the system is working," Mate said.
Mate, attending a meeting of the candidate countries, added that the country's preparations for joining the zone are proceeding according to plan, as the draft report on the additional evaluation of the air border shows that the Ljubljana airport complies with Schengen standards. Slovenia's main airport underwent the evaluation in early July after the airport failed the check last June.
Today's meeting in Bratislava is one in a series of meetings after the completion of key phases of preparations, at which "we are assessing our progress", said the minister.
Evaluations have also shown that all countries are ready for establishing the external Schengen border, Mate summarised the review of the preparations of the candidate countries. According to Mate, the existing Schengen members have largely managed to eliminate the technical difficulties that appeared during the SIS tests.
All Central and Eastern European newcomers plus Malta and non-EU member Switzerland have applied for full entry into the passport-free zone, while Cyprus has decided to keep some border checks in place.
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