The Schengen agreement

I would like to inform your readers that, contrary to what most of them were given the impression, if Malta joins the EU they will not be exempted from the passport control regulations when entering an EU member state if travelling from Malta.

The chapter about justice and internal affairs states that this will not be possible until 2005. The EU frontiers after enlargement will stay as they are today.

The following is an extract from the enlargement newsletter of February 4, 2003:

"New member states into Schengen - but not yet"

"Some of the complexities of integrating the new member states into the Schengen area - the EU's area of freedom, security and justice - were recently spelled out by European Justice and Home Affairs Commissioner Antonio Vitorino in Brussels.

"The Schengen acquis has to be accepted in full by all EU candidates, without derogation or exception - and this the 10 states acceding next year have done in principle and are now implementing in practice.

However, accession to the EU does not mean that new member states are automatically included in the Schengen area of free movement. After they join the EU, a special Schengen evaluation process in each of them will have to verify the ability to meet Schengen requirements.

"These requirements cover the security-related mechanisms designed to compensate for the elimination of internal border controls for people moving around in the Schengen area: visa policy, harmonised external border control, rules on the free movement inside the Schengen territories, asylum policy, police and judicial cooperation, provisions on extradition, drugs, firearms and ammunition.

"All this is backed up by the Schengen Information System, which contains data on persons or objects refused entry in the territory of the Schengen member states.

"Each new member state will be admitted to Schengen only after satisfying all these requirements, and after a special decision of the EU council of ministers, which is needed for lifting internal border controls.

"In any case, said Commissioner Vitorino, 'full implementation of the Schengen provisions immediately upon accession is not possible for technical and operational reasons'. A functioning Schengen Information System is a key precondition, and the new version to technically link the new member states will not be operational until the end of 2005. So 'it is not possible to take any decision concerning the lifting of internal border controls before that time'. 'In addition', he said, the 'Schengen evaluation process itself will take some time'.

"However, even if the new member states cannot immediately accede fully to Schengen, they will be required, as soon as they join the EU, to apply much of the Schengen acquis - for instance mutual cooperation in criminal matters and most of the provisions on police cooperation. It means, in effect, that they will have to meet all the provisions which are not directly linked to the lifting of internal border controls. 'This is to ensure that new member states can participate as soon as possible in the enhanced cooperation of the Schengen acquis,' Commissioner Vitorino explained.

"Looking further ahead, the commissioner also signalled his desire to see Schengen function better in an enlarged EU. At present, most decisions needed for the creation of the area of freedom, security and justice are taken unanimously by the Council, after consulting the European Parliament. 'This unanimity requirement has led to significant delays in decision-making,' said the commissioner, accusing individual member states of using their power 'to postpone and block the adoption of measures, forcing last minute compromises and derogations to the detriment of the coherence and ambition of the measures concerned - even in cases where the political will to act has been clear at the highest levels. In the context of an enlarged Union, such a situation is 'untenable', in the commissioner's view. 'In the interest of efficiency, it is therefore essential to make a substantive move in favour of a greater use of qualified majority voting in this area', he insisted."

Can Dr Simon Busuttil please explain or deny.