Fanfare for bigger border-free EU
BayBak, Azerbaijan | 1977 days ago | Friday, 21st December , 2007 , 03:59 [am] | International
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. | Thirteen existing EU states have already been part of the Schengen accord as well as two non-EU countries, Norway and Iceland.
The UK and Ireland are not involved in the passport-free zone but they have signed up to agreements on security. |
Nine new countries have joined the Schengen agreement, creating a 24-nation border-free zone.
A checkpoint between Austria and Slovakia was dismantled in one of several events marking the enlargement.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer sawed through a barrier at the Berg border crossing.
Ceremonies also took place in Hungary, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, Poland and the Baltic states.
Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are becoming part of the Schengen area.
Initially the lifting of internal controls involves just land and sea borders, but that will be extended to airports at the end of March 2008.
Mr Gusenbauer welcomed the extension of the Schengen zone, rejecting fears that it might create a crime wave in Austria.
He said it would expand the “zone of safety and stability in Europe” which would be of direct benefit to Austria.
Not only would Austria be safer, he said, but it would also “lie much more in the heart of Europe than it has in the past”.
The European Commission says that one billion euros (£720m) has been spent on beefing up security on the new EU frontiers, which include missions along the Polish and Slovak borders.
Mr Fico said: “From midnight tonight you can travel 4,000km (2,485 miles) from Tallinn in Estonia to Lisbon in Portugal without any border controls.”
Passport-free
The enlargement will allow passport-free travel throughout the area, although travellers can be asked to carry documents by any of the countries concerned.
For non-EU nationals, a Schengen visa allows travel across all the participating countries.
Thirteen existing EU states have already been part of the Schengen accord as well as two non-EU countries, Norway and Iceland.
The UK and Ireland are not involved in the passport-free zone but they have signed up to agreements on security.
A significant element of the Schengen agreement is the Schengen Information Service (SIS) which features an enormous database in the French city of Strasbourg.
The SIS database enables police in any Schengen state to find out whether a suspect has been involved in any kind of crime across the EU.bbc
, Voice of a Nation[1] Print
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