European Parliament
Zita Pleštinská (PPE-DE ).
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) As soon as the Commission announced last October that the free movement of citizens from the new Member States would be postponed until 2009, we voiced our objections in the European Parliament. We also launched several initiatives, including questions to the Council and Commission, and we subsequently drafted Declaration No 72, which is still pending. This declaration is designed to ensure compliance with the original deadline for accession to the Schengen area.
For this reason I regard the decision taken last week on St. Nicolas Day by EU interior ministers, enabling citizens from the nine new Member States to travel freely within the European Union from 1 January 2008, as a great success of the European Union and a consequence of the intervention by the MEPs.
Colleagues, I would like to thank you for your support. I am convinced that all countries, including Slovakia, will soon agree upon the strict security requirements involved in temporarily deploying an enhanced version of the current system as proposed by Portugal.

