Every effort to be made to accelerate the enlargement of the Schengen area

As the country holding the EU Presidency, Finland, together with the Council, the Commission and the European Parliament, makes every effort to ensure that the Schengen area would be enlarged to include new EU Member States as soon as possible. Today on Thursday 21 September, Kari Rajamäki, President of the Council and Finnish Minister of the Interior, together with Franco Frattini, Vice-President of the Commission, informed the EU Ministers of Justice and Home Affairs about the current state of the preparatory work of the Schengen Information System (SIS II), which is an integral part of the abolition of internal border controls.

The European Council required in June that the legislative measures and technical preparations relating to the Schengen Information System (SIS II) be finalised both at national and EU level as soon as possible.

Minister Rajamäki said: 'At the end of August, we received a report from the Commission on the timetable for the technical preparations of the SIS II.' The report has been prepared by technical experts of all Member States and the Commission during the months of July and August. According to the report, the preparations of the SIS II have been delayed for a number of reasons. These reasons include delays inthe tendering procedures for the procurement of the information systems related to the project, in the preparations of the location of the central system and in the preparation of the legal instruments to be adopted in co-decision with the European Parliament. According to the report, it seems highly probable that the SIS II will not become operational by April 2007 as originally planned. 'The Finnish Presidency will use its best endeavours to keep the delay as short as possible,' said Mr Rajamäki.

'Finland has taken forward the preparation of EU legislation on the SIS II together with the European Parliament and the Commission, for example during the discussions held on 13 September. I believe that we will reach a consensus on pending legal instruments during October,' estimated Mr Rajamäki.

Joining the Schengen Information System is a necessary requirement for abolishing internal border controls between the new and old Member States. For this reason, it is necessary to explore technical ways of making it possible for the new Member States to join the Schengen Information System as soon as possible.

According to the guidelines set by the European Council, the Presidency will examine as carefully as possible what can be done to accelerate the preparation of the SIS II. In addition, the Schengen evaluation process will be examined so as to make it possible to abolish internal border controls as soon as possible after the SIS II has become operational both in the current Schengen countries and the new Member States.

In October, EU Justice and Home Affairs Ministers will discuss the timetable drawn up by the Commission for the technical preparation of the SIS II project. After this discussion, the Justice and Home Affairs (JHA) Council and the European Council to be held in December will strive to set a target date for the abolition of internal border controls. The December JHA Council will also have on its agenda the Schengen evaluations carried out in 2006.

For further information, please contact: Director-General Antti Pelttari, tel. +358 50357 7194 and Senior Adviser for Legal Affairs Laura Yli-Vakkuri, tel. +358 40731 2429