In December 21, 2007 eight Central and Eastern European countries which entered the EU in 2004, joined the Schengen area. As a result, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenija are going to be an integral part of the passport-free zone that previously included 15 other states, viz 13 EU members plus Iceland and Norway.

To integrate into Schengen area, the newly-joined countries had to meet certain criteria as for borders and customs. Before affiliating them to Schengen system, the European Commission conducted in-depth research, checking whether their borders satisfied the current requirements. Now land borders are expected to be lifted in December 31, 2007, while air and maritime borders will be opened at the end of March, 2008, that is those who have a visa to other countries of Schengen zone, will be able to visit the new members without changing the visa.

The thorough check of terrestrial and maritime borders represent the first phase of Schengen zone enlargement. According to the experts, this is the main point to be investigated before the full integration of these states into the zone. Considering the abolition of border controls, some current Schengen members, such as Austria and Germany, express concern over security of their citizens, thinking that the expansion from the Eastern Europe will result in a more intense crime wave. At the same time, other old Schengen members, among them France, claim the integration will not have much impact on their internal policy.

Apart from land and maritime borders checking, there is another important condition on the inclusion in Schengen. Thus, the new eight members are supposed to introduce the up-to-date version of Schengen Information System – SIS II.

The project of the current Schengen zone enlargement was thoroughly elaborated by the EU which spent around 1 billion euros (1.4 billion dollars) on its development.

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This entry was posted on Sunday, December 23rd, 2007 at 12:12 am and is filed under News and Info. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.