Two more EU visits before final decision in November

Two EU teams of officials representing Schengen member states and the European Commission will shortly be inspecting the final preparations being made in Malta to satisfy the EU's borderless rules prior to their final recommendation by the beginning of 2008.

The EU inspection team last month carried out a verification visit at Malta's Embassy in Libya, which according to EU sources is now up to Schengen standards.

"We have been carrying out missions in all the new member states wishing to join Schengen over the past years and we are satisfied with Malta's performance," a Commission source said yesterday. A government spokesman told The Times that Malta is reaching all its targets in this area, from air and sea borders to the upgrading of overseas missions authorised to issue EU visas.

"We are very confident that, come next November, the Justice and Home Affairs Council of the EU will give the green light to Malta to be able to join Schengen in January 2008. Our feedback is already very positive. This will be a further feather in our cap and, together with the euro introduction, will make us a fully-integrated member state of the EU," the spokesman said.

The EU teams visiting Malta will inspect the new facilities being installed at Malta International Airport to separate Schengen arrivals from other European and third countries. They will also check whether the computerised database system to be used in this exercise, known as the SIS, is fully functional at various check points such as ports and the police headquarters.

If Malta gets the approval of the EU Council next November, land and sea borders with all its EU neighbours will be dismantled by the end of the year while air border controls will be abolished in March.

The go-ahead to the new Schengen entrants also needs the assent of the European Parliament which is at loggerheads with the Council over the way the new member states' entry should be approved.

Parliament wants to have access to the "classified" information about each country's state of preparedness before giving its consent. However, the Council is only prepared to let MEPs see the documents at the Council's building. MEPs have so far rejected this offer.

Entry into the Schengen area will mean that all those leaving Malta to another Schengen member country, including non-Maltese citizens, will not be subjected any more to passport controls and border checks.

"It's like driving from one place to another in Malta. For example, when Maltese nationals arrive in Sicily on the catamaran they can just start their car and drive off. No more waiting in queues," a Commission source said.

Schengen is an EU agreement between member states setting out common border control rules. The main objective of the agreement is to abolish passport checks on travellers and provide stronger controls on the area's fringes as well as closer cooperation between police forces.

The agreement includes all the old EU member states, except Britain and Ireland, which decided not to join. The new member states, except Cyprus, Bulgaria and Romania, are hoping to join the system in January.