EU Sheds Border Check in Eastern Europe
Friday, December 21, 2007 7:30 AM

ZITTAU, Germany -- European leaders celebrated the end of border controls along a line stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic on Friday as many of the European Union's newest members joined the EU's passport-free zone.

In Zittau, on Germany's eastern fringe -- where the country meets Poland and the Czech Republic -- Chancellor Angela Merkel, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso raised a border gate as children set loose dozens of blue balloons covered by stars -- symbolizing the EU flag.

"We are all quite happy to be able to celebrate this truly historic moment together," Merkel said as a crowd of onlookers cheered loudly.

Barroso held an old border crossing sign, calling it an archaeological relic.

On the Polish side, in Porajow, Tusk said the day was "exceptional" for the Poles, Germans and Czechs who came of age in a divided Europe.

"Putting an end to border controls ... gives us a deep conviction that Europe's bad time -- the division in our minds, in our hearts and on the borders -- is definitely in the past," he said.

The ceremony was one of several across the EU to mark the entry of nine nations - most of them ex-communist countries _ into the Schengen area, which formally took place at midnight Thursday.

Hours before the controls ended, Polish and German officials gathered at the Frankfurt an der Oder border crossing, east of Berlin, cutting a symbolic ribbon.

After the border was opened there were fireworks and cheers, along with the sounds of Beethoven's "Ode to Joy."

But the move has also forced the EU to tighten controls on its new eastern borders to prevent infiltration by criminal gangs, illegal immigrants and even terrorists.

"It would have been better to wait a year or two longer to abolish the border controls," said Joachim Herrmann, the interior minister of the German state of Bavaria, which borders the Czech Republic. "It's all a matter of how well-protected the border is from Belarus to Poland, from Ukraine to Slovakia."

The EU's formerly communist members have been introducing tighter controls on the eastern border since they joined the EU in 2004, with funding from their richer neighbors.

The EU's front line in the fight against illegal immigration remains to the south where thousands of poor Africans make a hazardous sea journey to the coasts of Spain, Italy, Malta and Greece, while would-be migrants from the Middle East and Asia take the overland route through Turkey and the Balkans.

Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer dismissed concerns that the expansion would aid criminals or illegal immigrants as he symbolically joined Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico to saw through a barrier on the countries' border.

"Schengen is not crime, not insecurity, not fear," Gusenbauer said. "Schengen stands for freedom, security and stability."

The Schengen agreement is named after the village in Luxembourg where it was signed in 1985 by France, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands to allow citizens to travel freely between them. Since then, they have been joined by Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Finland, as well as non-EU nations Norway and Iceland.

Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Malta joined the EU in 2004, but have had to wait before gaining access to the frontier-free zone pending reforms to bring standards of their police and border guards in line with EU norms.

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