Eight member states join EU’s Schengen border

THE EU’s border and passport-free Schengen area stretches as far as Russia, Ukraine and Belarus from midnight last night as eight of the new member states join the zone.

The remaining EU countries are expected to join over the coming year or two while Switzerland will join non-EU members Norway and Iceland next year in Schengen.

This will leave just Ireland and Britain outside the zone and Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said this is unlikely to change.

Road, rail and sea travel will all be easier, with travellers subject only to spot-checks by police and customs personnel from tomorrow while those travelling by air will need to show only identity cards from the end of March.

The new Schengen countries and the EU have spent about €1.4 billion setting up strengthened border controls to prevent illegal immigrants, people trafficking and smuggled goods coming into the EU.

About €2bn-worth of posts and barbed wire have been erected from the Baltic to the Adriatic while national border and customs officials have been receiving extra training in patrolling the EU’s new frontier.

The expansion has led to problems for those living outside the enlarged Schengen area including in Ukraine, Croatia and Belarus who have close ties with the former communist states now in the EU.

This has led to complaints of a new Iron curtain but several countries have been working to find ways to reduce the problems for people who work on one side of the border and live on the other or who have relatives there.

For instance Slovenia is issuing special keys to border crossings with Croatia to about 2,500 people living either side of the border, according to the Croatian foreign ministry. This should allow them cross over to work without too much difficulty. Croatia is an EU candidate.

The Estonians, who with Lithuania and Latvia only erected border posts with Russia when they became independent in 1991, say they could still be useful and are putting four of them up for sale.

Malta joins too but Cyprus, which has been part of the EU since 2004, remains outside until 2009 because of its contested border with the Turkish part of the island. Romania and Bulgaria hope to be accepted into Schengen in 2011.

Ireland and Britain lost a court action to force the EU to allow them be part of the security arrangements covering biometric passports when the European Court of Justice ruled against them earlier this week. The court also confirmed they did not have a right to be part of Frontex, the EU’s frontier control because both countries had opted out of Schengen.