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. Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! As well as Slovakia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia and the Czech Republic are also becoming part of the Schengen zone. 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. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7153490.stm ----------- That's great! I'm bringing two bottles of champagne tomorrow to work! Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! Countries of Europe will get closer one to each other at midnight.
Heh, weird, and not a single shimmer of a response to the fact that you can now drive from Spain to Estonia without borders.
Looks like a complete farce to me. EU citizens can travel through Europe with relative ease. If you have a passport its not much of an issue, but get rid of the whole system and your opening up the gate for illegal immigrants and criminal gangs. They are the real winners. Instead of having to get into Italy or Germany, all they need to do is sneak into Poland, Slovakia and they're laughing.
Well, it's the same as it was before in that respect - all they had to do was sneak into Italy or Germany. Everyone has to start at some point, in a few years there won't be any difference. I know that our border with the Eastern side is loaded with heat, movement and pressure sensors, monitoring video cameras, and frequent motorised patrols. Latvia and the EU has tossed some major funds at strenghtening our outer borders. Relative is the key. For me this is a major shift - I no longer have to adjust my travels to border crossings, but I can cross them anywhere while hiking. A whole new freedom and a range of possibilities. For people who live at the borders it's great too, there are quite a few communities which were split during the wars and historic land deals. For example we have a whole city in Latvia that's divided into two with Estonia. Now it can be one city again.
