Border Dispute
October 6, 2006
Eastern European countries such as Poland and Slovakia have pushed for expanding the Schengen Agreement on the free movement of citizens between member states.
But Schäuble said this could only happen if security standards had been met. Old EU members say the newcomers have to secure their outside borders in the east before controls at the internal EU borders can be abolished.
New states "have to meet the criteria, otherwise there is less and not more safety in Europe," Schäuble said, responding to criticism that an opening of the borders to the east may be delayed until 2009. Initially, border controls had been expected to disappear by October 2007.
Computer delays...
Ministers on Thursday were given a rough timetable for when the technical side of the new Schengen Information System (SIS II), the prerequisite for opening borders, might be completed.
The super computer was due to enter into use next April, but it has been delayed by technical difficulties, legal complaints by contractors and the sheer scale of setting up and testing it. It will likely not be ready until summer of 2008.
The giant database will link together information gathered by police in the bloc's 25 member countries, and replace the current system, which is only effective for 18 nations. SIS II would also be used to stock the new biometric data in use in travel documents, including fingerprints and computerized photographs.
Or political stalling?
But Polish Interior Minister Ludwik Dorn didn't seem convinced the delay was purely of a technical nature.
"There are people who are saying that there are technical problems, and there are others who are saying that it is political," he said.
Portugal meanwhile has brought forward a compromise proposal that calls for an adaptation of the current system for new member states until SIS II is ready. But while Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic were reportedly in favor of the proposal, Poland said it could not afford this interim solution as well as the move to SIS II.
The ministers are scheduled to decide in December how to proceed.