Slovakia will enter the Schengen zone in less than a week. Slovakia will join the largest borderless zone in world one minute after midnight betwee December 20 and December 21. The last hours before the entry, there will be Schengen party at the border crossings Berg. Earlier that day, Prime Ministers of Slovakia and Austria Robert Fico and Alfred Gusenbauer will remove a barrier symbolizing the controlled borer. As Slovak Interior Minister Robert Kalinak said last week in Brussels, the last remainder of the Iron Curtain will fall.
At its session earlier in December, the Council of the European Union's Justice and Home Affairs Ministers unanimously approved the entry of Slovakia and eight other countries to the Schengen zone. Costs of preparatory works for the entry and indirectly related work moved about SKK 3 billion. Marine and land border controls between the current fifteen members of the Schengen system and the new nine members, including Slovakia, will be shut down at midnight, December 20. Air transport will start operating without passport control as of March 30 of next year.
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