The European Parliament yesterday approved a resolution in its plenary session giving the go-ahead to Malta's accession into the borderless Schengen system as from next month.

Yesterday's vote followed last week's preliminary decision by EU Justice Ministers to allow Malta and another eight new EU member states to lift their sea and land borders on December 21 and air borders at the end of next March.

The last formal decision, although technically a "rubber stamp", will be taken during the next Justice and Home Affairs Council meeting in Brussels on December 7.

In his report submitted to the European Parliament, Spanish MEP Carlos Coelho, acting as rapporteur, gave an overview of the changes implemented by Malta to qualify for Schengen entry.

He said Malta's consulate in Moscow was not in line with the Schengen acquis, in terms of security, staff, equipment, premises, procedures and so on.

On the other hand the island's data protection systems were considered in many aspects to exhibit best practices, he said.

Regarding police cooperation, another important aspect of the Schengen-entry rules, Mr Coelho said Malta had to accelerate the preparations for full application of the Schengen acquis and draw up an action plan.

"The procedures for border checks on vehicles needed revision and a revisit (by the EU team) was required for the infrastructure at the checkpoints at Valletta International Sea Terminal and at Malta International Airport, and the procedures for checks needed improving.

"Malta managed to address all the outstanding issues, and almost all the shortcomings have been remedied," Mr Coelho said.