Friday, 21 December 2007 is sure to become a landmark date for the European Union. Nine new members have adopted the passport-free Schengen agreement which abolishes internal border controls. This measure applies to land and sea boundaries for now and will be extended to aerial boundaries by 2008.

The nine new members are Estonia, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and the Mediterranean island of Malta. An additional transitional period will apply to Bulgaria, Romania and Cyprus who are all set to enter the Schengen agreement zone in the future.

The new “Schengen zone” includes 400 million Europeans and 3.6 million square kilometres. This large expansion is the result of a long preparation. What is more, it comes with the condition that the new countries to the East impose tighter border controls with non-EU countries – in particular Ukraine and Belarus.

Only the United Kingdom and Ireland remain resolutely outside the Schengen zone.