EU celebrations of Schengen extension conclude (Roundup)

Dec 22, 2007, 15:20 GMT

Vienna - With celebrations at the Austro-Hungarian and Italian-Slovenian borders, the European Union on Saturday concluded a number of events to mark the enlargement of the Schengen zone to nine further countries.

The enlargement extends the EU's free travel zone to more than 400 million people in 24 countries, abolishing borders to many former communist states 17 years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

At the Hegyeshalom-Nickelsdorf border station between Austria and Hungary, EU Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso welcomed the new Schengen members.

'We have great expectations that the united Europe will work. Peace, freedom and democracy are important,' Barroso said.

Hungary's Prime Minister Ferenc Gyucsany remembered the historical importance of the Austro-Hungarian border, where the Iron Curtain marked the continent's division.

'Freedom and democracy have to be preserved. Hungary is ready to protect Europe and keep it secure, because freedom also means responsibility,' Gyurcsany said.

The ceremony was also attended by current EU President Jose Socrates of Portugal, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico and Austria's Interior Minister Guenther Platter, who reiterated Austria's position that free travel must go hand in hand with the best security possible.

'The opening of the borders is an end to the division of Europe. This is a big day for Austria, for all new Schengen member states, and especially for Europe,' Platter said.

The first Schengen agreement was signed in 1985 and included Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portgual, Spain and Sweden, as well as non-EU members Iceland and Norway.

The enlargement triggered fears among the population in Austria and Germany of rising crime rates after the end of border checks, leading to demands for increased security and police presence.

Despite the open borders, busy traffic on the last shopping weekend before Christmas led to several kilometres of tailbacks in the direction towards Hungary.

Near Trieste, in the Italian-Slovenian border town of Gorizia, which had been divided since the end of the Second World War, Italian Interior Minister Giuliano Amato welcomed the fall of the barriers. 'The creation of a border in Gorizia was one of the most depressing things in the history of Italy,' he said during a meeting with the town's mayor, Ettore Romoli.

The Treaty of Paris after the War cemented the division of Gorizia.

Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann meanwhile demanded a speedy extension of transport networks after the fall of the border controls.

The German federal government finally had to 'make sure that motorways and railway lines between Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland would be extended. There's a lot of catching up to do,' Hermann told the Passauer Neue Presse daily's Saturday edition.

The EU countries which are part of the Schengen agreement no longer have passport controls.

Switzerland and Liechtenstein are also due to join the Schengen Zone in November next year.