Poland to Portugal, without stop
Associated PressNine EU countries join the so-called Schengen area, eliminating border controls between them.
Published December 21, 2007
BRUSSELS- Border controls along the old Iron Curtain from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic cease to exist today as most of the European Union's former communist new members join the bloc's passport-free travel zone.
It's a major step in their transition from Soviet satellites to full-fledged EU members, but has also triggered fears of a flood of illegal immigrants that could stick Europe with a crisis similar to America's along its border with Mexico.
The entry of nine nations into the EU's so-called Schengen area means citizens can travel by land or sea between 24 European nations from Portugal to Poland, Iceland to Estonia without facing border checks. The move has also forced the EU to tighten up controls on its new eastern borders to prevent infiltration by criminal gangs, illegal immigrants, and even terrorists.
"Together we have overcome border controls as man-made obstacles to peace, freedom and unity in Europe," European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso told reporters in the Estonian capital, Tallinn. He said the expansion of the open-border zone will boost trade and tourism, inject new life into border-region economies and end the hassle of frontier delays.
As a condition for joining, the new members have strengthened security on their borders with non-EU nations such as Ukraine, Belarus and Serbia. They have also linked into an information exchange system for police and border guards around the EU.
But the EU's front line in the fight against illegal immigration remains to the south where thousands of poor Africans make the hazardous sea journey to the coasts of Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece, while would-be migrants from the Middle East and Asia take the overland route through Turkey and the Balkans.
Austria's Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer dismissed concerns the expansion would aid criminals or illegal immigrants as he symbolically joined Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico to saw through a barrier at the countries' border.
"Schengen is not crime, not insecurity, not fear," Gusenbauer said. "Schengen stands for freedom, security and stability."
Others fret that the new freedoms will bring problems. In particular, many Germans worry that criminals from their less prosperous neighbors will see the open borders as an invitation to come steal cars and rob houses.
Some German police officials have criticized politicians for rushing to eliminate the border controls. The national police union said police lack digital radios to communicate with their Czech and Polish counterparts and that there is confusion over how much leeway they have to chase crooks into other countries.
From the other side of the EU's external border, Ukrainians fear the tightened controls will cut them off from the West.
"I certainly don't greet this news with happiness," said Alexander Voitenko, 54, a Ukrainian scientist doing research in Warsaw.
The Schengen agreement is named after the village in Luxembourg where it was signed in 1985.
Information from the Washington Post was used in this report.