Interior, Justice and Treasury of Luxembourg Minister Luc Frieden yesterday visited the Sirine Unit at the Police Headquarters, accompanied by Justice and Home Affairs Minister Tonio Borg.

Following a brief tour around the Schengen base in the Police Headquarters in Floriana, Dr Borg explained that Malta will start feeling the benefits of the Schengen Treaty in March when borders over air travel will be removed.

“With the Schengen agreement, passengers will have their identity checked when they leave the country but not when they arrive at their destination,” he said.

Dr Borg said that Malta successfully passed all the required tests to participate in the Schengen agreement.

“The Sirine Unit is the hub of Schengen where the information is transmitted to other EU states. It is only in March that Malta will be fully integrated in the Schenghen zone,” he said.

Dr Frieden explained that it was a very important visit because he is the longest serving Justice Minister and also because the Schengen headquarters are based in Luxembourg.

“Schengen represents more freedom for honest citizens as they will be able to move from one country to another without any red tape. It also provides more security as the police will know where the criminals are,” said Dr Frieden.

He spoke about the importance of Schengen for small countries such as Malta and Luxembourg as they will have access to the database of larger countries.

Dr Frieden also praised the Maltese government for all its effort to form part of Schengen.

“I am fully confident that we can improve cooperation between the countries as we have a duty to make our countries safe,” he said.