Schengen
I keep bringing up tomorrow's expansion of the Schengen Agreement with people and wondering why they're not as amazed as me about the whole thing. There's no way around the fact that tomorrow's move is a huge deal.
As of tomorrow, all land and sea entries between every country in the EU (plus Norway, Iceland, the Faroes and Greenland, and minus the UK, Ireland, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus) will no longer operate border controls. This will mean, among other things, that you might fly to Helsinki from abroad, take the ferry to Estonia and proceed by bus or car or rail across the Latvian border, the Lithuanian border, the Polish border, and so on, down to Italy, where you might catch a ferry to Greece, all without once being asked to show your passport.
From April 2008, the agreement will apply to air travel as well. Several other countries are on track to joining Schengen as well: Switzerland, Cyprus, Romania, and Bulgaria will join within the next several years.
A big deal, indeed.
I love it!
Posted by: poet with a day job | December 20, 2007 at 16:55
It's a double-edged sword for sure. I wrote a post about its importance here: http://geekbuffet.wordpress.com/2007/12/23/the-opening-and-closing-of-european-borders/
Posted by: poetloverrebelspy | December 28, 2007 at 21:31