Ahlbeck, Germany/Linken, Poland - Fireworks lit the sky over
the Polish-German border Thursday night as the two countries
celebrated the falling of the border gates as part of an expanded
passport-free zone in Europe.
More than 6,000 Poles and Germans gathered in a festive party-like
mood to celebrate the historic opening of the border in extreme
northwestern Poland, near the Baltic sea.
Poland and eight other countries - Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania,
Czech Republic, Slovenia, Slovakia, Malta and Hungary - entered the
Schengen zone at midnight.
The enlarged Schengen area, named after the town in Luxembourg
where the free-movement scheme was first signed, will now accommodate
a total of 24 countries - all of them European Union countries except
Iceland and Norway.
Thomas Lenz, interior secretary of the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern
German state, emphasized that the border opening was a political and
historic sensation - a 'singular symbol for a free and peaceful
Europe.'
The first vehicle to cross was a bus which had to slowly plow
through the mass of people.
'We've been waiting for this moment for 60 years,' said Janusz
Zmurkiewicz, a top official in the Polish town of Swinoujscie,
formerly called by its German name Swinemuende.
Before the border gate fell, Polish and German border guards were
dismissed from their duty shifts.
Germany's police union leader Konrad Freiberg called dismissal of
the border patrol 'irresponsible,' saying that joint pursuit of
crimes such as theft had not yet been organized. He said he
anticipated that more break-ins and thefts would take place along the
newly opened border.
But Mecklenburg-Vorpommern's interior minister Lorenz Caffier said
there was strong coordination between federal and state police and
said he looked forward to the free travel and more robust trade
across the border.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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