EUobserver.com

EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - The European Parliament has strongly supported extending the Schengen passport-free zone, but deputies from the "new" EU member states have warned against the creation of a 'fortress Europe' which could damage ties with border countries like Ukraine.

In a vote on Thursday (15 November), MEPs echoed last week's positive verdict by EU interior ministers on the preparation of nine of ten countries which joined the bloc in 2004 to become a part of the Schengen internal border-free area on 21 December.

The decision involves Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Cyprus is not involved due to the unresolved issue of the Mediterranean island's division between Greek and Turkish Cypriots.

Following the removal of checks at internal land and sea borders late next month, controls at airports to be lifted in late March 2008, with the delay necessary in order to respect the current flight timetables and introduce new procedures after the shift from winter to summer time.

The Schengen zone currently consists of 13 EU member states - apart from the UK and Ireland - plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland.

After the big bang extension of the zone in December, "travel will be possible from, for example, the Iberian Peninsula to the Baltic States and from Greece to Finland without border checks," EU security commissioner Franco Frattini pointed out in a debate ahead of a vote by the Strasbourg plenary.

But both he and several deputies stressed that the bigger area will also require greater security measures to prevent criminals exploiting free movement within the bloc.

Mr Frattini noted that "Lifting internal border controls is also a question of trust between member states," adding that through an evaluation system, the national capitals were able to "gain confidence in each other's capacity to guard the external borders on behalf of all the others and issue visas valid for the whole Schengen area."

But the Czech leftist MEP Miloslav Ransdorf remarked, the "history of Schengen zone enlargement is the history of double standards," pointing out that while letting in Austria, Finland and Sweden in 1995 was a mere formality, the current nine newcomers were subjected to "embarrassing controls and evaluations."

Some deputies from central and eastern Europe also highlighted the problem of a possible worsening of ties with border states, such as Ukraine, Belarus or Russia, due to beefed up external border measures and more lengthy and expensive visa procedures.

Others pointed out that the full freedom of movement for citizens of the new EU member states should soon be accompanied by the removal of labour market restrictions against them.

At the moment, Germany, France, Austria, Belgium and Denmark still apply temporary bans on new workers which they can keep – if they can justify the reasons to the commission – until 2011.

In addition, most western states continue to keep barriers against Bulgarian and Romanian jobseekers whose countries joined the EU in January.

MEPs endorse EU passport-free zone