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Nine more countries enter Europe's border-free zone
It was with mixed emotions that I came across the recent news that nine more countries are being allowed into the European Union's border-free Schengen zone.
The Schengen zone is an area within the EU where passports are no longer required to travel between countries. Once a visitor has passed through the first layer of security entering the Schengen, he or she is free to travel onwards without having to pull out their passport until they leave--it's sort of like traveling between states within the USA.
On December 21, the Schengen will expand to include Malta, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia. Most of these countries were once locked behind the Iron Curtain and protected by some of the most heavily guarded borders in the world. Before the end of the year, their citizens--and all international tourists--will be able to travel overland from places like Prague to Madrid without passing through passport controls a single time.
So why do I have mixed emotions about this?
Filed under: Europe
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
max Mar 3rd 2008 6:22AM
croatia is still not in the Eu, nor is it a member of schengen, thus you would still have stops of that trip entry and exit of croatia
Justin Glow Dec 18th 2007 11:15AM
Wow, this would have made one particular train ride much easier for me, had it happened a few months later. I went from Venice, Italy to Budapest, crossing over borders at Italy-Slovenia, Slovenia-Croatia, and Croatia-Hungary. With two stops per crossing, and two checks (tickets and passports) per stop, I got absolutely no sleep on the 16+ hour train ride. Of course, it didn't help that I wasn't in a sleeper berth, but still...
But I guess trains will still have to stop at borders to swap out conductors, so it's just one less step.
Jamie Dec 18th 2007 5:44PM
It should be interesting to see if any of these regions see an increase in tourism as a result.