Ceremony marks extended EU border
A checkpoint between Austria and Slovakia has been dismantled in a symbolic ceremony marking the enlargement of the Schengen area.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer sawed through a barrier at the Berg border crossing.

At midnight, nine new countries will join the pact, bringing an end to border controls from Estonia to Malta.

Celebrations are due to take place in all the countries involved.

As well as Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are also becoming part of the Schengen zone.

From midnight tonight you can travel 4,000 kilometres from Tallinn in Estonia to Lisbon in Portugal without any border controls."
Robert Fico, Slovak Prime Minister

Initially, the lifting of internal controls will involve 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 bring "an expansion of the zone of safety and stability in Europe" which would be of direct benefit to Austria.

Not only would Austria be safer, but it would also "lie much more in the heart of Europe than it has in the past".

The European Commission says that a 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 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles) from Tallinn in Estonia to Lisbon in Portugal without any border controls."

Passport-free

The enlargement will allow passport-free travel across 24 European states, 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.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm

Published: 2007/12/20 12:35:15 GMT

© BBC MMVII