The EU's 'Schengen area'

From next Friday, people will be able to travel from the glaciers of Iceland and the shores of the Baltic in the north to the Greek Islands and Mediterranean Malta in the south -- all without a passport. The terrain they cross will all be part of the 'Schengen area'. 

This week will see the Schengen club's largest expansion yet, when the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Solvenia and Slovakia abolish all internal EU sea and land border checks; internal air border checks will be removed in March.

The 'Schengen-area' agreement, which abolishes systematic passport checks between the participating countries, was established between five EU member states in Schengen, Luxembourg in 1985 and today counts 15 members: the old EU-15 minus the United Kingdom and Ireland, plus Norway and Iceland.  In order to maintain security, all Schengen members sign up to a common visa policy for non-EU nationals, harmonise external border controls, and increase cross-border police cooperation through a shared database.

Schengen: winners and losers

Travel will now just become faster and easier as EU nationals no longer have to show their passports to cross from one Schengen state to another.

The greatest losers will be nationals of non-EU member states that border on the new Schengen countries, namely Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, and Montenegrins.  These have so far enjoyed cheap visas to visit their EU neighbours, but will now have to purchase a much more expensive Schengen area visa instead.  This will damage tourism, making the day or weekend trips almost unaffordable, and affect cross-border commuters who live on the East and work on the West of the new common EU external border.

It will also make life more difficult for a sizeable number of US citizens who have for years lived and worked in Central European countries on a tourist visa. So far, they only had to cross into the neighbouring Schengen countries, like Germany or Austria, to re-enter their host country for another 90 days. Now that the host country will be part of the Schengen area, they will have to apply for a proper and much more expensive resident's permit, or fly all the way to the United Kingdom or Ireland every 90 days.

The biggest winners of the new area will be the tens-of-thousands of non-EU nationals from former communist states who already live in one new Schengen member states.  A Serbian living in Hungary or a Ukrainian living in Slovakia will now be able to travel further west, without having to apply for a visa.

The Schengen area expansion has been heavily criticised by many residents and authorities along the old external border, namely in Germany and Austria, who fear an increase of cross-border crime, illegal immigration and drug-trafficking.  Fears may be unfounded: similar concerns were articulated when eight Central and Eastern European countries joined the EU 2004, yet cross-border crime has actually fallen significantly since they entered the bloc.

Aside from its corollary nuisances and advantages, Schengen has an important symbolic value. It finally abolishes the last remnants of what was once the iron curtain. On a more sentimental note, the bloc's new member states will start to feel full and equal members of the European family.