"Hungary and the countries that joined the EU in 2004 will be permitted to join the Schengen border-checking agreement before Christmas,"EU Interior and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini promised at the regular meeting of ambassadors to Hungary on his short visit in Budapest. "The new EU member states can link to the Schengen IT network in September, and political authorization is expected in November," Frattini pledged."The Schengen system will be expanded by mid-December, thus we can visit family members and relatives at Christmas as if no borders exist," Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsány said.
Frattini said "the US Interior Secretary told me a few weeks ago that the US will approve a new law giving equal visa rights to all citizens of EU member states. We cannot accept the US discriminating between EU member states, when its citizens can move freely through all EU member countries without a visa," Frattini underlined.
Gyurcsány thanked Frattini and added that "Hungary cannot achieve results on visa issues against the US single-handedly, but only with the help of Brussels and Frattini."
"The EU will approve a new anti-terror legislation package in the autumn, criminalising the dispersal of bomb-making information," Frattini concluded."
Source: Hungary Around the Clock.
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31.07.2007