Expansion of the EU's borderless area
Pastor Dale Morgan
Expansion of the EU's borderless area
Eu slowly retuning to Old Roman Empire boundaries
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Mon Dec 17, 2007 2:53pm GMT
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - A minute after midnight on Thursday, the European
Union will lift border checks with nine of its newest members. Here are
key facts about the expansion of its border-free area:
- The Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta,
Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia will join the border-free "Schengen" zone
on December 21. Border posts will be dismantled, people will travel
without showing passports. The end of checks will be extended to
airports in March.
- Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands,
Germany, Austria, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, Greece and non-EU members
Norway and Iceland are already part of the borderless area. EU members
Britain and Ireland have chosen not to take part.
- The expanded zone will be 3.6 million sq km (1.4 million sq miles),
with more than 400 million inhabitants. It is named the Schengen area,
after a village in Luxembourg where a first agreement to cut border
checks was signed in 1985 between the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg,
Germany and France.
- The Schengen area has been gradually expanding, but Thursday's
extension will be the biggest so far.
- The nine new Schengen entrants joined the EU in 2004. Cyprus, which
also joined the EU in 2004, has asked for one year's delay. Romania and
Bulgaria, which joined the EU this year, need more work to meet security
criteria, officials say.
- Schengen countries use an EU-wide database storing names of criminal
suspects and stolen cars, for checks at the bloc's external borders. New
entrants have had to step up security and undergo checks by the old
Schengen states.
(Reporting by Ingrid Melander; Editing by David Brunnstrom and Richard
Balmforth)