Tallinn - Instead of passport checks and long lines, the
Estonian border guard orchestra greeted Finnish Prime Minister Matti
Vanhanen on Friday.
Vanhanen stepped off the ferry from Helsinki in the Tallinn port
to participate in the celebration of the Schengen enlargement in the
Estonian capital.
Border controls were abolished at midnight on Friday when nine
European Union countries joined the common visa area known as
Schengen. The Estonian capital was lit up on Friday with fireworks
commemorating the historic enlargement.
'We believe our external borders are those of the EU, and that it
is in the interest of all EU citizens to be able to move in the Union
as we move in our countries - freely and without hindrance,' Estonian
President Toomas Hendrik Ilves said in his speech.
The prime ministers of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, European
Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and EU Commissioner for
Justice, Freedom and Security Franco Frattini attended the
festivities.
'All of our countries, all of our peoples living together in
peace, in freedom and democracy,' Barroso said. 'This is indeed a
historic moment.'
Opening the borders does not jeopardize the level of security of
European countries, Frattini told journalists at the press conference
in Tallinn.
'We conducted more than 60 inspections on the ground. And the
result is that all the nine member states were perfectly well-
prepared to join Schengen,' he said.
Opening borders means that European citizens can travel without
stopping at borders of the 24 Schengen countries.
'No passport - just pass the port,' read a flashing sign on
screens inside the Tallinn port on Friday.
Ilves and Latvian President Valdis Zatlers took part in a symbolic
border-demolishing ceremony at both countries' joint frontier in
Valga and in Latvia's Valka.
'All obstacles are gone. The way is open. Starting in Lapland,
this way will lead us without any stops through Valka and Valga to
the southern point in Portugal,' Ilves said. 'All of it is our
Europe.'
The nine European countries that abolished land and sea border
controls Thursday midnight are Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, the Czech
Republic, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia.
The enlarged Schengen area, named after the village 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
for Iceland and Norway.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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