Mate: All Schengen Candidates Have Met Criteria

Prague, 26 October

An independent group of Schengen evaluators established that all candidates for entry into the Schengen no-border zone fulfiled all the required criteria, Interior Minister Dragutin Mate said on Friday, coming out of a meeting of EU interior ministers in Prague. "The door to the final decision is now open," said the minister.

According to Mate, the final decision to eliminate border checks on the EU's interior borders will be made at a session of the Justice and Home Affairs Council on 6 and 7 December. The decision cannot be taken earlier, as the European Parliament meets from 12 until 15 November and needs to deliver its opinion, Mate explained.
According to Portugal, the current EU president, the Schengen enlargement is to take place on 21 and 22 December, when the controls on the EU's internal sea and land borders are to be eliminated. The air borders are to be cleared of border checks by March 2008.
At today's meeting, the ministers discussed ways to strengthen cooperation. "It is important to maintain good police cooperation between the countries at the interior borders. This is the only way to combat cross-border crime effectively," Mate said. The ministers were pleased that the Schengen candidates not only fulfiled the Schengen criteria, but also improved the security of their own citizens and the citizens of other EU countries.
According to Mate, there have been over six million queries at the Schengen Information System, two million of which came from Slovenia. In the past two months, over 5,800 people, stolen vehicles, documents and license plates have been traced down with the help of the system, the minister explained.

Mate: All Schengen Candidates Have Met Criteria

More articles from this issue:

Archive