Europe opens borders to central Europe

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BRUSSELS, Dec 8 (AFP): Europe brings down the last remnants of the Iron Curtain on December 21 when it opens land and sea borders into central Europe and expands its passport-free zone to 24 nations.
Travellers, commuting workers, freight trucks and cargo ships will be able to move more freely from Tallinn, Estonia in the Baltics down to Lisbon, Portugal in the west and as far into the Mediterranean as the Greek islands.
By March, passport checks will also be abolished at airports in nine new nations linking them to the 15 currently signed up to the Schengen Treaty, named after the Luxembourg border village where the pact was born in 1985.
"It's the end of a process that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall 18 years ago," German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said on December 6, after he and his EU counterparts had given the expansion final approval.
To mark the occasion, seen in Brussels as an early Christmas present to citizens in the nine countries at a peak travel time, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso and Justice Commissioner Franco Frattini will travel to border points to take part in ceremonies as the barriers come down.
The first will be held in Zitau, the German town which lies at the Polish and Czech Republic border. Later, Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen will steam into Tallinn harbour on a ferry, minus the usual travel formalities.
On December 22, events will also be held at the borders of Hungary and Austria and Italy's frontier with Slovenia.
In all, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia will enter the zone, joining the oldest European Union countries, bar Britain and Ireland, plus Iceland and Norway.