No open borders for new member states until 2012, predicts report
By Honor Mahony
It could take up to eight years before all ten of the new member states join the EU's open borders area, according to a new report published on Wednesday (19 May).
The report, by the European Citizen Action Service (ECAS), says an evaluation of whether new member states can protect the external borders of the EU from illegal immigration and cross-border crime is likely to take place only after 2007.
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And then, only two countries a year will be inspected, meaning that it could be 2012 before every new member state has joined the border-free zone, known as the Schengen area.
"Even in a relatively optimistic scenario it may not be until 2012 that the last of the 10 new member states will be able to join [the] Schengen zone", says the report.
On top of this, it is also not clear, says the report, whether the new member states will be required to join Schengen as a group or will be admitted on a country by country basis.
Since 1 May, travelling within the EU of 25 has been possible with an ID card instead of a passport but checks will still be carried out at the current EU borders until the internal borders are lifted.
The report concludes that the "enlarged EU is not only running into danger of creating first and second class EU citizenship ... but also building a new barrier between the EU and its eastern neighbours".
It recommends that deadlines be set up which are subject to more public and parliamentary scrutiny.