Baltic leaders celebrate joining Schengen zone

Dec 21, 2007, 13:40 GMT

Tallinn - Baltic leaders continued on Friday to celebrate joining the Schengen common European visa zone following its midnight expansion to include nine new members.

'The date, December 21, 2007 ... put an end to talks about new and old Europe,' said Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves during a visit to the southern Estonian town of Valga.

'Abolition of border controls on the internal borders of the European Union convinces us that Europe is united,' the online edition of newspaper Postimees quoted him as saying.

Ilves and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers took part in a symbolic border-demolishing ceremony at both country's joint frontier in Valga and in Latvia's Valka.

'All obstacles are gone. The way is open. Starting in Lapland, this way will lead us without any stops through Valka and Valga to the southernmost point of Portugal,' Ilves said.

'All of it is our Europe.'

At the stroke of midnight local time - an hour ahead of six other European countries that are part of the new passport-free zone - Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, opened their border gates with a festive flourish.

Cameras flashed as the gates went up and people trickled into the border area from Latvia and Estonia. People cheered and clapped as two streams began to merge into a large crowd on the border.

The other six countries that abolished land and sea border controls Thursday midnight are the Czech Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The enlarged Schengen area, named after the town in Luxembourg where the free-movement scheme was first signed, will now accommodate a total of 24 countries - all of them European Union countries except Iceland and Norway.

Valka, with a population of over 7,000 people, and Valga, with a population of over 15,000, used to make up the town of Walk. It was given that name by German crusaders in the Middle Ages and held on to the name through centuries of Russian imperial rule.