The government on Wednesday, February 16, allocated €3.85 million from its reserves to the process of linking Slovakia to the second generation Schengen Information System (SIS II).
The money will be transferred to the budget of the Interior Ministry, which is obliged to find the same sum in its coffers for this purpose for the project, which will have a total budget of €7.7 million.
Slovakia currently uses an older-generation system known as SIS I+, the TASR newswire wrote. SIS II, the new information system, is more complex and has been prepared over several years. When it is launched, Schengen zone member states will have much more information in their databases about migrants, asylum seekers and people who have committed crimes.
Member states are set to implement SIS II before the end of March 2013, but preliminary tests are due to be carried out first. Slovakia will begin the testing process on June 30, 2011.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.